


The Choices We Make

by TrashHeapPro



Series: 5+1 Universe [6]
Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Possessive Behavior, TW domestic abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:07:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 42,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23101438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrashHeapPro/pseuds/TrashHeapPro
Summary: A direct sequel to my 5+1 Tsundere fic.Tae Joon is forced to make a choice when someone from his past finds him. Revenant is forced to make a choice when everything falls apart.
Relationships: Crypto | Park Tae Joon/Revenant
Series: 5+1 Universe [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1653658
Comments: 40
Kudos: 141





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> While it's not a NECESSARY prerequisite reading to this, I highly recommend reading my 5+1 series before reading this, otherwise the dynamic between Crypto and Revenant might be seem a little strange.

Tae Joon, as usual, was combing through the Syndicates data. There was mention of the acquisition of a new hacker meant to get blackmail information or intel on other corporations. Someone who would always give the Syndicate a leg up in negotiations. They already had others doing that sort of thing, but apparently this one was supposed to be a class above the rest. He was… concerned, but it was specified that this hacker was untrustworthy and wouldn’t be working in cybersecurity like some of their other hackers were. This was good. Obviously, his code remained unfound with the current team, but if there was a new player, he would have to be more cautious. 

Hammond didn’t have anything really new on their end. They were looking for a new CTO, but Tae Joon was expecting that. Revenant, much to his surprise, played it safe, killed the man quietly and left no evidence behind. If anyone had their suspicions, there was no mention of it in their data. Tae Joon wondered what would happen if they knew it was Revenant. They couldn’t kill him; there was a reason They hadn’t just dismantled him and had to put him in the Games as a suggested version of imprisonment. 

“Crypto.”

He turned to Revenant who was leant up against his doorframe. “Ppalgan.” He checked the time. Four in the afternoon.

“Time for training.”

He sighed. “Ten more minutes?”

“No.”

“Five, I just have to log out of the systems safely,” Tae Joon said. Revenant stood over his shoulder and watched as he shut off systems. He chuckled and shook his head. “I’m not going to run away.”

Revenant’s hand found its way to the back of his neck. “Can’t run away from me.”

He looked up and leaned his cheek against his forearm. “And I wouldn’t want to.”

As promised, Tae Joon had his machine turned off within five minutes, grabbed some gym clothes, and followed Revenant out. He really didn’t enjoy training with Revenant but it had its uses. He kept to his normal training, 45 minutes to an hour at the firing range and another hour on cardio, but now Revenant added close combat training. It was hard to keep up with a simulacrum built to kill and even harder to meet his standards.

Tae Joon was quick, light on his feet, and Revenant told him to use that. Revenant was mostly keeping him moving; dodging and diverting hits, “use gravity to your advantage” he had said. Revenant gladly showed him the consequences of getting hit or trying to block a hit by someone who was much stronger. 

Tae Joon was forced to block a hit with his forearms. This just wasn’t fair. Revenant had a much longer reach than him and any hit he landed probably did more damage to him than the simulacrum. Revenant let him in close and they traded blocks and blows, it was more about speed than strength and he could feel Revenant holding back. He felt a little toyed with, even in speed Revenant bested him. He supposed that was a given seeing as how his sparring partner was a literal killing machine and he hadn’t trained like this for very long. 

Revenant kicked him away. Tae Joon rolled with it, scrambling onto his hands and knees, blocking the dirty kick Revenant tried to get in while he was down. He grabbed the leg and tugged, sending Revenant to the ground. Before he could even move to try to do something about that, Revenant had his fingers pointed between his eyes. 

Tae Joon sighed and leaned against Revenant’s thigh. “This is just unfair,” he said, breathing heavily. He felt the sweat rolling off him. He just wanted to go take a shower, maybe test those upgrades on his drone. 

“But you’ve gotten better.”

“Haven’t noticed.” He sat up. “Got my ass kicked when I started, get my ass kicked now.” He got up and went over to his water bottle, nearly downing the whole thing. 

“You’re putting up more of a fight,” Revenant said, coming up behind him. “Maybe now you can make it a little more interesting when I catch you.”

Crypto and Revenant had an ongoing agreement in the games where, if they were on opposing teams and they found each other, the winner of the team fight got to choose how the other died. Everyone knew this by now, especially the viewers, they loved the harmless (harmful) competition between the two. Their merchandise has been selling incredibly well, so well that they now had joint merchandise. And money was what mattered most to the Syndicate, which was why they let it happen. 

The deaths ranged from amusing to gratuitously gory with Revenant practically torturing Crypto before killing him. The broadcast team usually had to switch to a different camera during those, but not because of the blood and/or guts hanging out of him, but because Revenant sometimes got hard during it. Well, that and Revenant really liked to take his time. Why watch something long and probably make most viewers uncomfortable when they could just switch cameras to an exciting firefight?

They usually kept broadcasting when Crypto won, which was more often than most people expected. Crypto was usually able to find Revenant first and would pounce when the other was occupied, usually as his team was recovering from a team fight. Sometimes Revenant could turn it around, but still, in those situations, Crypto more often than not came out victorious. 

When Crypto beat Revenant, he usually chose funny or humiliating deaths for the other. Once he asked Lifeline to call down a package and told Revenant to stand under it. Octane had gotten a real kick out of it and took selfies with him and Lifeline. He has several pictures with the three of them in the forefront and with Revenant in the background glaring at them with his arms crossed over his chest as the package landed right on his head and his deathbox popping up. Even he couldn’t stop himself from grinning even with a camera on him.

But when it was Revenant that found Crypto, it was always an open and shut deal. His team would get eliminated and, after being severely injured, he would get carried off by Revenant who would then tell his team to fuck off. 

When one person on Crypto’s team went down, Revenant liked to get close and manhandle him, like a cat playing with a mouse. Crypto always lost in hand-to-hand combat. Revenant liked to say he was teaching Tae Joon to make it more interesting in the Games, but truth be told, he didn’t like people being able to put hands on what he deemed his. 

Tae Joon chuckled, still out of breath. “I don’t think I’ll ever be much of a match to you, Ppalgan.”

“On the contrary,” Revenant tilted his chin up to look at him. “I think you’re the perfect match for me.”

He let Revenant maneuver his face how he liked. Let Revenant press a kiss to his lips. Let him follow him into the locker room. Let him watch as he grabbed his towel and clothes. He walked into a shower cubicle, leaving the door and curtain open. He watched Revenant watch him. He threw his towel and clean clothes onto a rack and started heating up the water. He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it onto the little bench.

Revenant came up behind him and helped him out of his pants. He pressed his metal fingers against Tae Joon’s bruises. The bruises he caused. Marked up by him. And Tae Joon bore them beautifully. When he pressed a little too hard, Tae Joon let him know with a hiss, but he never pulled away. Revenant pressed up against him.

Tae Joon pushed his hands away. “Not today, Ppalgan,” he said. He walked under the spray of water. “We have a game tomorrow. I won’t win with a limp.”

“Fine. Would you like some help?”

“I think I’ve had enough of your hands on me for now,” he lathered his hands up with soap and scrubbed the sweat away. Revenant sat by his clothes and watched as his hands ran over his body, imagining his own there. But Tae Joon said no, so he wouldn’t. “Don’t pout, Ppalgan,” Tae Joon chuckled.

“I’m not.”

“You are,” Tae Joon stepped out of the shower and grabbed the towel right by Revenant’s head. As he dried himself, he stepped between Revenant’s legs. Even while Revenant sat, Tae Joon only had a few centimeters on him. He kissed him. “I’m hungry.”

He scoffed. “Aren’t you always?”

“I just worked out for three hours.” He pulled on his shirt. Revenant sat there and watched him, his fingers twitching occasionally. He was refraining from touching. Tae Joon huffed and kissed him. “Fine, you can touch.” Immediately, he was pulled into Revenant’s lap, hands running over his back, ass, and thighs.

“I haven’t put my pants on yet, Ppalgan.”

“I know.” He kissed him again, Revenant licking into his mouth. “I can’t?” he asked, hands squeezing his cheeks.

“You can’t,” Tae Joon said.

He grumbled, frustrated.

“We can do other things, but later,” he said. Revenant let him go so he could pull on his pants. “Come on. Let’s go get some food.” Tae Joon gathered his things and held his hand.

Revenant took it without hesitation.

Dinner was being made by Elliot, Natalie, and Renee tonight. There were a few people who liked to make dinner for everyone on certain nights a week. Elliot, Makoa, Ajay, Natalie, Renee, Pathfinder, and Anita did it most often. They enjoyed the group activity of it.

Tae Joon was just glad that Makoa wasn’t in charge tonight. Man was a good cook don’t get him wrong, probably the best cook, but he tended to cook more communal foods and Tae Joon wasn’t in the mood and Revenant wasn’t the ‘communal’ type. 

Tae Joon just grabbed two small plates, each with one pork chop and some veggies, and handed one to Revenant. He thanked the three for making dinner and situated himself in a corner of the canteen. Revenant sat across from him.

Tae Joon ate. Elliot’s cooking was good, he would prefer a warm bowl of noodles, but food was food. If he wasn’t going to cook, then he wasn’t going to complain. Revenant kept looking over at the rowdy group in the middle of the room. There was a question brewing in Tae Joon’s head and it had been for a while.

“Do you like it here?” Tae Joon asked. “In the games?”

“It’s noisy,” Revenant scoffed.

“But it’s nice, isn’t it?”

“A nice way to get a headache.”

“I meant it’s nice not being alone,” Tae Joon said.

Revenant looked at him, stared at him like he often did. “It’s… nice.”

He smiled, laughing a little bit to himself. “Thought so. Do you-,” he hesitated. “Are you going to stay here?”

He scrutinized him, wondering what Tae Joon meant by that. “Why do you ask?”

Tae Joon picked at his vegetables. “You’re here for a reason. Would you… give that up to stay here?” He couldn’t stay here forever. He couldn’t stay here with Revenant forever. The day would come where he’d have to give this all up. He’d have to give up Revenant if the Syndicate had their way and the simulacrum decided to stay in the Games for the blood.

“I don’t know,” Revenant said. “I do… like it here. With you.”

That answer made his gut fall and heart soar all at the same time. Maybe- maybe Revenant would choose to stay with him when he left. Maybe they could continue to be together after he finished up here. But could he ask that of Revenant? If he really enjoyed it here, could he ask Revenant to leave all of this just for him? He couldn’t force that on him.

Tae Joon reached out and let his fingers mingle with Revenant’s. Just for a little while, he told himself. It might not be forever, but even if it was just for now, that would be enough for him. It would have to be. “I like it here with you too, Ppalgan.”


	2. Chapter 2

This last match was hard. He was teamed up with two newbies who felt the need to prove themselves and ignored his every suggestion. He placed 9th with them, which was impressive by his books. He respawned the both of them on three separate occasions and every time they refused to listen to him. Ah, everyone had bad days like that occasionally.

Revenant wasn’t even the one to kill him. It was just not fun in the slightest.

Tae Joon decided to go into town today. He had to buy some groceries. Revenant would have come but his ‘skinsuit clothes’ got dirty after the rowdy Legend party last night. He had punched Octane for spilling soda all over the hoodie Tae Joon got him and said that this was why he didn’t come to these social functions.

The clothes were in the wash at the moment and so Revenant couldn’t come out to the city with Tae Joon. The hacker decided to buy more clothes for Revenant while he was at it. He already bought everything, he just had to go to the store to pick it up.

He buttoned up his coat and pulled on a baseball cap, all black of course. He filled his pockets with what he needed; wallet, phone, cube, drone, Games ID. One of Revenant’s scarves was on his bed. He huffed. Revenant was treating his room more like theirs. He didn’t mind, he really didn’t. He found it kind of cute, like they moved in together. But that meant Revenant left his thing wherever he pleased. 

Revenant came in when Tae Joon was pulling on the red scarf. He stared at him. Tae Joon stared back, wrapping the red fabric around his neck. “Do you mind?” he asked. 

Revenant stepped towards him and pulled the fabric further up his face. “Not at all.”

Of course he didn’t. “I’m going out for a bit,” he said. 

“I can see that.” 

“You’re still not pouting about that party last night?” he asked, amused. 

“I don’t pout.” 

Metal hands came to rest on his hips, holding him in place. “I should really get going if I want to get back in time for dinner.”

“Hmm.” The hands tightened.

“It won’t take long,” he huffed.

“I know.” Revenant pulled him into a hug.

Tae Joon giggled and reached up to place a hand on Revenant’s cheek. “A little clingy today.”

“Mm.” He squeezed. “I don’t know,” he mumbled. “This can’t wait until tomorrow?”

Tae Joon laughed. “Now you’re being ridiculous.” He pulled Revenant down for a kiss. It was soft, chaste; he smiled into it. “That was awfully sweet,” he whispered against Revenant’s lips. “Hope you’re not losing your edge.” 

That earned him a growl and the grip on his hips intensified. Oh, he was certainly getting new bruises there. 

Tae Joon chuckled. “Still too easy, Ppalgan.” He let his fingers linger on Revenant’s cheek as he pulled away. Revenant huffed and reluctantly let go, but still followed him on his way to the hangar. “Be good while I’m gone.”

“Am I a dog?”

“Oh no. You’re worse,” Tae Joon said. “You get into more trouble.” He nodded to Ajay as she walked by. “Not going to sneak out while I’m gone are you?”

Revenant really did like to do his own thing. Usually disappearing when Tae Joon was planning on working on some code or his drone for hours. But Tae Joon suspected that was because during those times, Revenant knew exactly where he would be. Whenever he intended to go out or do something else in the compound Revenant stayed close by. Revenant was a little possessive that way. 

“I’ll wait for you to get back,” Revenant said, glaring at the car as if that was the reason Tae Joon was leaving. 

“Alright.” Tae Joon pulled him down for another kiss. “I’ll be back soon.”

Tae Joon grinned and waved goodbye as Revenant stood there to watch the car leave.

The drive into the city was 20 minutes, getting everything he needed from the grocery store was hardly 30 minutes. He got everything he wanted and a few extra things. Octavio asked for more soda, Natalie ran out of eggs, and Elliot wanted some cinnamon. He restocked on dry noodles and got a few other ingredients to make a nice soup. He could only hope it came out as good as Mystik’s. He got some flour too, he wanted to make some scallion pancakes tonight. Maybe he should just add some meat to that and call that dinner.

If he were cooking for other people, he might be more concerned with the nutrition of that ‘meal’, but if it was just for him no one was going to complain. He would like to cook for Revenant. Well, he already did, but it would be nice if Revenant could actually eat what he made for him for once. That was not to say he didn’t like Revenant’s current way of tasting his meals; he was the last one to complain about a kiss from the simulacrum. But he had to portion out the food carefully as to not make food for two when only one would eat it; he’s made that mistake a few times already.

He piled all the groceries into the trunk of the car. He just had one more stop and then he could go back to the compound. He could probably get back before the two-hour mark.

Well, he had to get rid of the people following him first, then he could go back. He could just try to lose them in the city which would take some time. He did have a few weapon stashes around the city; not a lot and nothing too dangerous, just two P2020s and a wingman.

He thanked the woman behind the counter as he was handed a bag with two sets of clothes. He hoped Revenant liked it, he tried to avoid anything too tight, since there wasn’t a whole lot for clothes to accentuate. Besides, he didn’t think Revenant wanted to be in anything too troublesome to put on.

He went to the park. The people in suits were still following him; black suits and sunglasses, never the sign of good guys. They were so obvious about it too. Was it the Syndicate? Had they caught onto him? But there were so many opportunities to capture him in the compound.

He went off the path, into the trees. He wished he could have dropped off Revenant clothes before doing this. He didn’t want them to get ruined. But he didn’t want to go near the street, he didn’t want the potential for a van to pull up and take him away without him being able to do anything. At least here there wouldn’t be a car running him over.

Tae Joon crouched by a tree and found what he was looking for. Once he pressed his finger pads onto the invisible surface, it shifted into a black box which instantly unlocked for him. He quickly put the wingman in an inside pocket of his jacket along with the ammo.

There was really nowhere for the suits to hide except for behind trees like little 5-year olds playing hide and seek. He squared his shoulders and turned to where they were hiding.

“Do you plan on doing something?” he asked. “Or are you just going to follow me all day?”

They stepped out from behind the trees. He watched them, but the three men made no move to do anything. No weapons were drawn, they took no further steps towards him. This was strange.

“Did you need something?” Tae Joon pressed.

Still no answer, no movement. He glanced around; it didn’t seem like any more of them were approaching. He weighed the pros and cons of starting a fight here. He didn’t know what they planned, if they had any weapons, if there were more people here. He was very clearly at a disadvantage, but never let the enemy know that.

He had to make the first move. If he didn’t, he might die here.

Tae Joon quickly drew his wingman and fired with a precision that was built up through many matches of the Apex Games. Finally, the other two men started moving towards him, their hands going towards their waist. He didn’t even have to aim down the sight to land the next shot. It hit the man square in the chest. He was moving his arm to get the last man.

“Tae Joon, stop!”

That voice was familiar, feminine, certainly not from the man in front of him. Not a voice he’s heard in a long time. A very long time. Attached to a name he hadn’t heard come out of a person’s mouth for an equally long time. He turned his head to the voice. She was just as beautiful as the day they took her.

“Mila?” he whispered. She was supposed to be dead. He was supposed to have been framed for her murder. Yet here she was. He only registered being tackled to the ground when Mila started tilting to the side. Rather, when he was.

He grunted as he landed harshly on his arm. He kneed the man in the side and clasped his hands together, bringing it down on the back of the man’s head. His grip slackened enough for Tae Joon to shove him off level his wingman at him.

“Stop!” Mila said again. “I’m with them!”

Tae Joon glared at the man. “They’ve been following me all day.”

“Under orders,” she said. “Can we all just calm down?” He hesitantly lowered his gun. The suit brushed off the dirt clinging to his clothes. Mila sighed. “Great, can we go to a café or something so you can ask me how I’m alive?”

“I thought you were dead.”

“You and everyone else,” she said. She helped him up and brushed off the dirt and leaves off his jacket. “Come on. Let’s talk.”

The café they went to was deserted, even the workers didn’t seem to come out after they were served their tea. They were joined by four new people in suits. Three stationed outside and two inside with them. One was quite obviously glaring at him, even his sunglasses couldn’t hide that. He suspected he was going to be asked to leave with them, but he wouldn’t have a choice in the matter.

“So,” Tae Joon started. “You’re alive.”

Mila huffed a laugh. Her eyes aged in a way he recognized when he looked in the mirror. So much time has passed, so much has happened to them. “Yeah. Yeah, I am,” she said.

“What happened?”

“You know what happened,” she said. “The Syndicate took me, framed you.”

“You’re missing three years in-between then and now.”

She shrugged. “They hired me.”

“They-” Tae Joon stared at her with wide eyes. “Wait, so they’re-” he pointed to the men watching them.

“Yes.”

He should have killed the other one when he had the chance. “They kidnapped you.”

“I know.”

“They framed me.”

“I know.”

“I thought you were dead,” his voice cracked halfway through.

“I know,” she whispered.

“They took everything from us.”

“They can give it back and more,” she said. “We can work for them. Maybe not the best hiring practices, but they’re willing to pay us good money.”

“Why would they want us?”

Mila laughed. “Why wouldn’t they? We hacked into their system, that alone was enough for them to consider us.” She sighed. “This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. Once you were in their custody, they were going to offer you a job.”

“So I’d have a choice between working for them or prison?” he snapped. “What were your options then, death or work?”

“I know what you’re thinking,” she said, almost desperate. “But hear me out.”

“I am,” he said tersely. “And I’m not liking it.”

“For once we could live comfortably,” she said. “We wouldn’t have to worry about if we'll have to move back in with Mystik next month.” She looked at him pleadingly. She reached over and placed her hand over his. “You, me, and Mystik. We can finally be happy.”

He turned his hand to hold hers. It was an attractive idea. It was what he always wanted. What he dreamed of. But it felt so far away. So impossibly far away. Especially now, with men in suits surrounding them, threatening their freedom.

He thought of Revenant waiting for him back at the compound. He’d bet that the Syndicate would love it if he decided to stay, something (someone) else to keep the simulacrum in check and distracted from killing them. He had no doubts that they would provide them with more luxury than they would ever need. 

He squeezed her hand. “They’re bad people, Mila.”

“I know.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

“They control the Frontier,” she said. “They can give us what we want.”

“You want to live with Them holding our leash?”

“We get to live!” she hissed. She inhaled, keeping her eyes closed, trying to calm herself. “We can have a clean slate,” she said. “They’re interested in you.”

“I’m sure.” He pulled his hand away and leaned back in his seat. “How long have They known?”

“Not long,” she said. “I- I actually haven’t been allowed to see much.”

“You should never go into sales.”

She glared at him. “They just wanted to make sure I could be trusted.” He scoffed. “Just this last month I’ve been able to move around freely. I saw some of your matches. I thought you looked familiar. I- I watched more of your interviews and then I realized.” She paused and chuckled to herself. “It was kind of hard recognizing you when you don’t look like a giant nerd anymore.”

“How long have They known?” he asked again.

Her face fell. “A few days,” she said. “I told them who you were.”

His hands tightened into fists.

“I was surprised that you were able to hide right under their noses like that,” she said. “They were impressed. And wary. Some of them wanted to get rid of you and the others knew they could make good use of you. I convinced them to lean my way.”

“I’m guessing if I refuse, I’ll be killed.”

Mila frowned. “I don’t understand why you’re against this. Weren’t you the one that said that we should just keep our heads down.”

“I think this is the opposite of keeping our heads down.”

“No, what I’m doing, listening to them, getting paid to do what we’re good at, that’s keeping my head down. You?” she laughed. “Entering the Games, doing interviews, letting your face be seen on merchandise and billboards by millions of people, that’s the opposite.”

“What do you want me to say?” he sighed. “Things change.”

“Oh you changed alright,” she scoffed. “Never thought I’d see the day you’d be so skilled with a gun. Or get hot and heavy knowing full well there are cameras watching. Especially with a sim.”

He groaned. “You saw that?”

“You’re not exactly hiding it.”

He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. “They never streamed it.”

“Yeah, cause I think they’d have to take down their own stream if they did!”

“Oh this is awkward.”

“How do you think I feel?” she snapped.

“At least he never fucked me.”

“Oh my god.”

Tae Joon chuckled. This all felt strange. Normally their roles would be reversed, Mila embarrassing him with her escapades and him holding his head in his hands. He has changed and he didn’t know if it was for better or worse. What he did know was that this… this couldn’t be fixed with a simple hack. They all knew. They saw him now. He couldn’t go back to the Games. 

“Do you like working for them?” he asked. 

“Yeah,” she said. “I do.”

“Kidnapping you and framing me doesn’t bother you?”

Mila fiddled with the handle of her cup. “Not anymore.”

“The fact that they do terrible things, doesn’t bother you either?”

She looked up at him, her eyes firm, her shoulders set. “No.”

He never thought his sister could be so cold-hearted. He never thought she’d join up with the people who ruined their lives. He saw her logic, he really did. Just... was comfort worth justice? Was it worth going against what was right? Was Mila worth abandoning his morals? He started all this for her, but now that he was this far was it still only about avenging her? 

Was Revenant worth leaving his anger behind? Was their game, their room, their affection, was that enough to abandon what was right? A selfish part of him told him that being with Revenant was right. That staying here, participating in the games with new friends, being with Revenant, being able to be with Mila, that that was the right choice.

He mentally chastised himself. How had he let himself fall so far that he was almost at the point of throwing everything he was working towards for the past year away so easily? This was about more than just him now. 

He laughed bitterly. “So much has changed in these three years.”

She looked at him, a sad smile finding its way onto her face. “Feels like like a lifetime.”

“Yeah,” he gripped the table with his left hand. “I missed you, Mila. I really did.”

“I missed you too,” her voice strained against the tears welling up in her eyes. “Don’t do this, Tae,” she pleaded. “We can be happy. You can even stay with that sim if that’s what you want, please.”

“Revenant,” he said. “His name is Revenant.” He wanted to stay here with her. With Revenant. He wanted to be happy. But he wanted justice. Not just for Mila, but for everyone the Syndicate had wronged. For Revenant. “Could you do me a favor and give this to him?” He gestured to the bag next to his seat. “It doesn’t look like I’ll be making it back to him.” His hand slipped into his coat. “I’m sorry, Mila.”

“Don’t!”

His wingman was out faster than any of the other two men could react. He shot one and flipped the table towards the window, wary of a potential sniper. He felt vindicated when the window shattered. Mila screamed. But she would be fine, she was one of them now. He shot the other man and dashed towards the kitchen.

The kitchen personnel cowered as he barreled through the back door. Should he go up or stay down? Up gave him more options, but down gave him more cover. Options were what he needed now, so he climbed the fire escape. The three men that were originally stationed outside were chasing him up. They tried to shoot him, but the metal grates provided a surprising amount of cover when the shooters were just spraying.

He had a limited number of bullets. He probably had a total of 20 bullets at best, he already used four, and he’d need every last one if he wanted to make out of this. He tossed his drone out and set it to roaming mode, it would hover in a large radius around him, pinging anything or anyone moving suspiciously.

He jumped over a gap over the roofs, scrambling up onto the higher ledge. He turned briefly to aim at the top of the staircase. One shot, one man falling over, collapsing into his ally’s arms. He needed time to get off this planet. He needed to put some distance between him and his pursuers.

He jumped over another gap and let his drone hang there, just under the ledge. When the suits tried to jump as well, he activated his EMP. One convulsed, falling three stories into a sickening splat, the other managed to make it onto the other side. It was an easy shot.

He went into his cube, hacking a nearby parked car, the only requirement he needed from it was that it could self-drive. He used his drone to scan the area, there were multiple cars converging on his area. This was too easy. His utility might be limited in the games, but here, everything was tech. He hacked the traffic lights to have a truck slam into one of the cars. Another he turned off the breaks, making it unable to turn the corner well enough, slamming into a building. He overheated another’s engines, causing it to smoke before erupting into flames.

Tae Joon climbed down from the building and slid into the driver’s side of a black sedan. He had to get to the spaceport, hopefully get a ride off planet. He put the coordinates into the car. The engine came to life and he was off.

He looked outside. He took his games ID, snapped it in half and threw it out the window. The air was filled with smoke and screams. He passed by screaming people and erratic cars. Ppalgan would be proud of him.

Revenant.

He couldn’t go back. He had to wipe his room. Get rid of all his data and anything that could give himself away. That Mila could use to find him. He had to stay out of her reach, she was a part of Them now. And that- that broke his heart. He was losing her all over again but this time, he couldn’t even think of her without knowing she chose Them. Not that she was taken from him, but that he had to leave her behind because he couldn’t make the same choices as her.

And that forced him to leave everything he build up over three years. His augments, his drone, his appearance, his whole life, anything that could lead back to him had to be left behind. The second time his life was ruined by Them. The second time he had to die. The second time he would have to start anew. And-

And starting anew meant leaving everything in the past behind.

He had to leave Revenant behind. What was he thinking? Thinking he could ask Revenant to come with him. That he had the right to ask Revenant to leave everything behind just for him. It was nice, fun while it lasted, but this had to be it. This was it. 

Before Tae Joon could even register it, he was dialing Revenant’s number.

“Crypto?”

This was it. He gripped the scarf around his neck. “Ppalgan,” he said quietly. “Where are you?”

“Your room, why?”

Of course, he was. He swallowed to try and rid the dryness in his throat. “Do- could you do me a favor and go to the common rooms? I think I left my repair kit in there.”

“Why do you sound like that?” was his sharp response. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, my drone broke, while I was out,” he lied. “I just fell down some stairs.”

He heard rustling on Revenant’s end. “Hmm. Awfully clumsy of you.”

“It was-” he hated this. “It was embarrassing.” He hated lying to Revenant.

Revenant chuckled. “I bet.”

Tae Joon felt tears threatening to fall. He heard a door swish open. He couldn’t risk saying anything. He didn’t want Revenant to hear how thick his throat felt. He adjusted the scarf around his neck, pulling it up enough that it was nearly covering his mouth.

He went into his cube, checking the surveillance he planted in his room. Empty. He checked the surveillance systems in the rest of the compound. Black cars were rolling up. Revenant was in the hallway, a few yards from his room. It would have to be enough.

He set the self-destruct charges that he placed in his room. Five.

“I’m sorry, Ppalgan,” he whispered, tears finally falling, soaking into Revenant’s scarf. Four.

“What’s wrong?” He could hear the frown in Revenant’s voice. Three.

“I can’t come back,” his voice cracked. Two.

“What are you talking about?” Revenant yelled into the phone. One.

“I-”

He heard the explosion through the line. Revenant grunted as the shockwave slammed him into wall. His screens indicated that he had no access to anything in his room. The wipe was successful.

“Crypto,” Revenant hissed. “What’s happening?!”

“They found me,” he said. He choked on a sob. “This is goodbye, Ppalgan”

“What are you talking about?!” Revenant’s pitch sounded off. Almost like he was panicked. “Tell me where you are!”

Tae Joon knew that this day was going to come. But he didn’t want it to be like this. He wanted a proper goodbye with Revenant. He wanted- He wanted Revenant. He wanted-

“I wish,” he took a deep breath. “I wish I had more time to spend with you, Ppalgan.” He couldn’t stop the tears from dripping into his voice even if he tried.

“Cryp-”

He ended the call. 


	3. Chapter 3

He tried to call back multiple times. Crypto never answered. The tracking on his phone was never on before, Revenant knew that, but in his desperation, he tried to find him using that method anyway. What happened? Where was Crypto? 

Why did he say goodbye?

None of this made any sense. Why would Crypto destroy his room? Why would he destroy his computer, his tools? How could he continue his work without them? Why did he say goodbye? _They found me._

He knew what that meant, he was in shock not an idiot. And yet, he still couldn’t understand why.

The room was on fire, there were scorch marks all over the floor and ceilings. They would have been on the walls too if they weren’t completely blown away. His bed- their bed was on fire; the mattress thrown against the small opening made in the bathroom. Crypto’s computer was little more than a melted pile of metal. It was- 

“Excuse me, but you’ll have to vacate the premises.”

Revenant turned to look at the men standing in the doorway. Black suits. The Syndicate. The people Crypto was fighting against. The people working with Hammond. The people trying to keep him here to prevent him from slaughtering them all. _They found me_. 

“Where is he?” Revenant asked. 

“Sir, you need to vacate the area,” one of the suits said, nervousness ticking in her voice. 

Revenant stepped up to her. Tiny skinsuit. “Where is he?”

“This is now an active crime investigation; we need you to vacate the area.”

Revenant’s hand slid through her chest like butter. The woman gurgled, blood clogging her throat as Revenant threw her to the ground. He looked to the other suit. “Tell me where he is.”

“S-sir, please calm down,” the man stuttered. 

“I am calm,” he said. “You don’t seem to be.” For every step the man took backwards, he took a step forward. “Tell me where he is, and I won’t play jump rope with your intestines.”

The hallway filled with even footsteps, measured, unrushed. Revenant turned to them. A new group of suits making their way towards him. One man on the phone, speaking in an annoyed tone. 

“Unbelievable, just,” he sighed. “Just get her in here.” He glanced up and sighed again when he spotted Revenant. 

Kuben Blisk. Commissioner of the Apex Games. One of the board members of the Syndicate. _They found me_.

He didn’t know if the heat consuming him was the residual heat from the explosion or the anger burning in his core. Before anyone else could act, he appeared behind Blisk and slammed him up against a wall. “Tell me where he is!” Guns came out, all of them pointed at Revenant. 

Blisk held his hand up to his people, like he wasn’t too concerned that he was in the hands of a killing machine. “Unfortunately, we know just about as much as you. In fact, you might know more than we do.” 

Revenant glared at him, tightening the hold he had on his shirt. 

“You were the last person he called before he went offline.”

That explained nothing. Not the information he wanted. “Tell me where he is.”

“We don’t know. Now if you let me go, we can discuss this issue like civil people.” Revenant snarled and dropped him. Blisk adjusted his clothes as if it would smooth out the wrinkles Revenant put there. “Great.”

“What happened?” Revenant asked. If he didn’t like the answer, the man in front of him was as good as dead. 

“We were alerted to a criminal’s presence here at the Games,” he said simply. “We were simply doing our civic duty to bring him in.”

“You put me in here.”

“Under… extenuating circumstances.”

“Revenant,” Anita called out, most of the legends following behind her. Damn, he hadn’t even heard her come up behind him. Too caught up in murdering Blisk. “What happened?”

“That’s what I want to know,” he snarled, pointedly looking at Blisk. 

“Kuben?” Elliot questioned, noticing the man. “What are you doing here?”

Blisk clasped his hands together and smiled at the group. “Perfect timing.”

“Mr. Blisk?” Natalie questioned. She looked at the rubble that was Crypto’s room. “Mon dieu…”

“Is everyone okay?” Ajay asked, a pensive look on her face.

“I wonder about that too,” Revenant said. If looks could kill, Blisk would be dying a painfully slow death; a narrowed simmering glare that would slow roast him over a fire.

“It would seem that Crypto had set charges in his room,” Blisk said.

“Woah!” Octavio said. “And I thought I was into some weird shit.”

“We discovered he had been committing crimes, right here, under our noses,” he shook his head. “We tried to apprehend him while he was away to prevent damage to the compound, but it seems that he got away with that too.”

Revenant perked.

Natalie shook her head. “Crypto wouldn’t do such a thing,” she said.

“Crypto might be a little shady,” Wraith said. “But he’s not a bad guy.”

“Then he had fooled you just as he fooled us.”

“What do you mean he ‘got away?’” Revenant asked, hopeful, maybe Crypto would find his way back to him after all.

“Well, as it stands right now, he has evaded our agents,” he said.

Atta boy.

“Then what are you doing here?” Elliot asked.

“We were hoping to collect his things, gather evidence of his wrongdoings.” He gestured generally to the room. “He’s beaten us to the punch on that end as well.” He looked to the people that were with him. “Take care of this.”

Revenant threw one of the men that tried to get past him. “Don’t touch my things,” he hissed.

Blisk raised a brow. “This is Crypto’s room.”

“Which means it’s mine,” Revenant said lowly, in a spine shivering way that left everyone frozen. 

Even with his shoulders hunched slightly he was taller than anyone in the hallway. He loomed over them in more than just his physical features. His mere presence made them believe, if even for a second, that they were below him. Killing them, all of them, if they dared to try and take what was his, would be an easy task.

Revenant’s panic had subsided. He didn’t have anymore questions. Asking these people would be useless. He was… confused. But he was sure of one thing. Everything that belong to Crypto was his. Crypto was his and his alone. None of these skinsuits deserved any part of him.

“He’s mine,” Revenant said.

There was a twinkle in Blisk’s eye that he didn’t like. “Yes, yes, we are aware of your… attachment to the man,” he said. “Unfortunately, this investigation must be carried out, but I would like to have a word with you on this matter.”

“You have too many words. I could rip out your tongue, relieve you of all of them,” he said. Anita, Ajay, and Renee were looking at the interaction warily while Natalie and Elliot looked terrified of what might transpire next.

Blisk’s people finally started to act again, raising their guns at Revenant. He chuckled darkly. Those cute little toys would do very little to him. Slaughtering them wouldn’t take more than a minute. _They found me_. But maybe he could take his time with the dear old commissioner.

Blisk smiled tersely at the other Legends and waved them away. “There will be a debriefing later discussing Crypto’s crimes and how the Apex Games will be going forward. I’ll have my secretary schedule it,” he said.

“You sure?” Elliot asked.

“Positive.”

Ajay watched them critically. “Don’t give me extra work, Revenant,” she said, her hands crossed over her chest.

“Don’t worry,” Revenant said. “You don’t deal with the dead.”

“Revenant, please,” she said, a sigh on her lips. “I know you’re confused, we all are-”

“Don’t presume to know me,” he snapped. He turned away from her, zeroing in on Blisk. He might not be here right now, but Crypto liked the other Legends. “You haven’t wronged him, haven’t crossed me. Leave before I change my mind.” He heard the other Legends retreating down the hall, but his eyes stayed on Blisk.

Blisk smiled at him; stiff, professional, with a hint of fear. Good, good. Revenant didn’t need to remind him who really had the power here. “I have a proposition for you,” he said.

“Oh,” Revenant said, amused. “Do you now?”

“But first, if my people could do their jobs…” he tentatively requested.

He looked at Crypto’s room. His room. Their room. He imagined the Syndicate’s goons touching their things. _They found me._ “No, they can’t,” Revenant stepped into the room, looking around. “I get first dibs.” No one seemed interested in arguing with him. Not with the blood of one of them coating his hands.

There was nothing left of the tech in the room. If Crypto set charges to destroy any evidence, there wouldn’t be any. He didn’t bother with that. Instead he looked for things that Crypto might not have targeted. The desk was obliterated and anything on it was gone. But debris of the bed was somewhat intact, even if it had blasted through the bathroom wall. There, covered in soot and a little singed, was a little Nessie plush.

Revenant had watched Crypto as he stared at the plush in his web browser, thinking far too hard about a little stuffed animal. But it had been a limited-edition fat Nessie. Crypto had insisted he had to have it. That it was so fat and cute, he couldn’t resist. It was incredibly small for how much it cost, no bigger than his palm.

He remembered how Crypto lit up when the little thing came in the mail. How he climbed in Revenant’s lap and made the plush boop where his nose would have been. The action was adorable. Crypto was adorable. A side that only Revenant got to see.

He pocketed the plush.

“There you are,” Blisk said. “What’s that?”

Revenant turned around and watched as a short woman joined Blisk. She had long red hair, a streak of purple with a beanie covering it. She wore a baggie hoodie and jeans, carrying a shopping bag with her. She wasn’t a normal suit, but generally looked non-threatening. Wouldn’t take much to be rid of her.

“Oh, this is…” she trailed off as she spotted Revenant. Her face pinched together when their eyes met. It wasn’t fear like he expected, nor apprehension. Who was she?

Blisk noticed the woman had his attention. “I would like to introduce you two,” he said. Revenant eyed the two of them skeptically, but still made his way over to them. “This is Revenant, as I’m sure you know,” he told the woman. “And this is Mila.”

She nodded to him. “I’ve seen a lot of you,” she said wryly, a hidden meaning he didn’t know of. He didn’t like it.

“Can’t say the same.”

“She’s the one who’s been tasked with finding Crypto,” Blisk explained. “They have history.”

Something violent and volatile sparked in Revenant’s chest. She seemed to notice and frowned at Blisk. “Don’t say it like that,” she said.

“Are you ready to hear our proposition now?”

Revenant stared at the two, stared hard at the woman. “Fine,” he said.

Blisk waved his team to go comb through the room. “I’ll be frank, I would like to acquire your services to find Crypto.”

Revenant barked out a laugh. “And what makes you think I’d do that for you.”

“Because you’ll be doing it for you,” he said, too smug for Revenant’s liking. “See the thing is, the Syndicate just wants Crypto out of the way. We would like for him to be working for us, but we also wouldn’t be too heartbroken about him being dead either.”

Revenant snarled at him.

He held his hands up in a placating manner. “What I meant is that we don’t care very much about him. Whether our girl Mila here can bring him into the fold, or you… have your way with him, as long as he’s out of our way either result is agreeable.”

“Your point, get to it,” Revenant said.

“You’re… experienced in hunting down Crypto. We’d like your expertise. Like your agreement in the games, you find him, catch him, you can do whatever you want with him. If you agree, we’ll fund your search for him. Won’t even ask you to bring him back to us if you don’t want to,” Blisk offered.

“Sounds awfully in my favor,” he said. “What’s the catch?”

“No catch, just get him out of our way.” Liar. “And we know you have certain… proclivities for him. We’ll even loan you the resurrection technology in the games if you want to reuse him.”

“Hey,” Mila snapped. At least the woman regarded Crypto as more than an object, Revenant could… respect that. Blisk gave her an annoyed look that had her backing off instantly though. That displeased Revenant. He might not like the woman, but he certainly disliked the commissioner far more.

“What makes you think that offer’s even worth my time?” Revenant asked. “Bringing him back to life isn’t an issue for me.”

He watched the woman; her face was pained but she couldn’t bring herself to look up at either of them. She has been beaten and worn into submission; it was obvious in the way she held herself. This was his competition for Crypto? She wouldn’t stand a chance.

Blisk smirked. “But real flesh and bone feels different from your ash and dust, right?”

He wasn’t wrong. The transformation into ash could never quite get Revenant to the same peak that real flesh did. His totem was useful, but it was more practical than pleasurable. The image of the Crypto’s flesh as he bled, as he begged, as he blushed… ah, his ash could never compare.

But he wasn’t an idiot. He saw what Blisk wanted, what the Syndicate wanted. They wanted to offer Crypto up to him, like a sacrifice, to keep him placated. They hoped that indulging himself in Crypto would keep him from killing them, if even for a little bit. And it might have worked, if Revenant wasn’t so maliciously spiteful.

“No,” Revenant said. “I’m going to find him. Punish him for-” Blowing up their room. Running away. Twisting his wiring up in a such a confusing way. Hanging up on him. Saying goodbye as if it would be their last. As if Revenant had no say in it. As if Crypto had a choice in leaving him. “And then,” he looked at Blisk with his ominous eyes. Maybe the man was starting to sweat. He could see his own orange glow reflected off the human’s eyes. “I’m going rip apart you skinsuits. Piece by piece.”

“You think you can find him on your own?” Mila said, almost snapped, but she held herself back. “The most powerful conglomerate in the world couldn’t find him while he was sitting in their lounge, but you think you can find him when he doesn’t want you looking?”

Revenant let his eyes slide over to her. She stiffened once those orange eyes met hers. “And what makes you think he doesn’t?”

She held out the white bag towards him. “He told me to give this to you. Said he wouldn’t be coming back to you.”

Liar. He looked at the bag. It was the same brand Crypto got his red hoodie from. Liar. Her eyes were unwavering; skittish, a little scared, of course, but steadfast. LIES.

“Face it,” she said. “He left you and he doesn’t want to be found.”

He lifted her shirt and slammed her into the wall. She dropped the bag, using her hands to hang onto his arm. Blisk was content to just watch. Of course he was. “Shut up.”

“Look around,” she struggled to say. “He’s not coming back here, he left me with that bag to tell you goodbye.” She kicked at him, but he wasn’t budging. “He’s gone! He left! He made his choice!”

Their room was gone. Their things. Everything was gone. He was gone. Crypto was gone. He left him. “Not for long,” he said lowly. “I’ll drag him back kicking and screaming if I have to.” He pulled her back just to shove her against the wall again. “He’s mine.”

“You want him back!” she yelled. “And who do you think has the most resources to find him?”

The Syndicate had practically unlimited resources in the Frontier. The most powerful entity in the Outlands. “I’ll find him on my own.”

“You don’t even know where to start,” she said. “I do.”

He eyed her and let her go. “Where?”

“That is information we’ll leave to our pursuit team,” Blisk said, finally interjecting. “We’d be happy to provide you that information and more if you agree to our little proposition.”

Revenant’s eyes narrowed on him.

“Let’s make a game out of it,” he said. “Mila’s just as dedicated to finding Crypto as you are; whoever catches Crypto first decides his fate.”

The woman was right about one thing, The Syndicate had the resources to find Crypto. He could find Crypto on his own, in his own time, but would he find him before They did? Could he find Crypto before this woman and a whole pursuit team did?

Maybe. Maybe not.

“Fine,” Revenant bit out.

Blisk grinned. “Glad to hear it. Mila catch him up to speed.” He left the two of them, walking down the hallway where the other Legends disappeared down.

Mila’s lips were pursed. Despite her role in having this happen, she didn’t seem too pleased about it. “I’ll give you the data we have on Tae right now. You can read it on the way.”

“Tae?” he asked.

“Oh, he didn’t-” she covered her mouth as the words slipped out. His name. Crypto’s name. His real one. She knew it. And he didn’t. “I’m sorry.” Had Crypto loved her more than him? Was she worthy of knowing his name? Was he not?

She grabbed the bag off the floor and held it out to Revenant. “He wanted me to give this to you,” she said, as if reading his mind. “He liked you. Just before he made a break for it, asked me to give this to you.” Delaying his departure. Risking his safety asking this woman to give Revenant one last gift. “I think he really liked you,” she said quietly.

He took the bag from her and looked inside. Reds, a lot of red. His color. The nickname Crypto gave him. Red. Ppalgan. If this woman found Crypto first, would he never hear Crypto’s voice calling out to him with that nickname on his tongue?

He looked up at her. “How did you know him?” he asked.

She smiled sad and tired in a familiar way he couldn’t quite place. “He’s my brother.”

Ah, that’s where. He had seen that expression on Crypto before, when he talked about the Syndicate, why he was here, about his dead sister. Not so dead after all. And yet she chose to join the Syndicate. _They found me_.

“You betrayed him,” he snarled.

She flinched and looked away. “I know it might seem that way, but I didn’t. He’s my brother, I love him. This was supposed to be good for us.” She sighed. “He didn’t see it that way.”

“Because he’s not an idiot.”

She took a deep breath. “I’m not going to get into it with you right now. We need to go before his trail gets too cold. Pack your things,” she said. “I’ll meet you in the hangar in 15.”

Revenant watched as she trudged her way back the way she came. He’d find Crypto first and then, he’ll kill her. He’s the only one Crypto needs. She might not be a threat to what he and Crypto were, but he won’t let her jeopardize him- them ever again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case it's not clear, Tae Joon and Mila's feelings for each other are strictly familial.


	4. Chapter 4

Gaea. Once his home, but it didn’t quite feel that way anymore. It still had the same neon colored lights. Tall buildings and narrow streets. Same pungent smell in the air. Mystik was here on the planet somewhere, unless she was visiting somewhere else for business. Knowing that he could visit his mother made him happy. It brought back that feeling of home. But still it was off.

Home. Was this planet even home anymore?

It hadn’t felt like home since this all started.

The safehouse he was in was small. A tiny kitchen and tiny bathroom. He had a small futon in the corner, it had to be small so he could fit a desk in the one room apartment. At least there was a fire escape he could go out on as a makeshift balcony, or a quick escape. He had just restocked the groceries, mostly frozen foods and things that were simple and quick to make. And coffee of course. It was a good thing he still had some clothes stashed away in here.

He made a few calls yesterday to some people; he was hoping to find the doctors who helped him install his augments. ‘Doctor’ was a generous term for the people he was looking for. They were the backstreet doctors of the backstreet doctors. But they were good at what they did, more reliable than the accessible ones. Which meant that they were incredibly hard to get a hold of and exponentially more expensive.

Tae Joon sighed. He didn’t even know if they were still operating in this city. He doubted they would leave Gaea; augments were stylish here and many people were willing to try out the latest tech even if it was dangerously experimental.

Revenant could have fit in here, he thought idly. If he wore clothes to hide his exposed joints and wiring, most people wouldn’t even glance at him. Ah, there he went again; letting Revenant sneak into his thoughts. It has been happening a lot in the couple of days since he left.

He wanted to see him. But he couldn’t. He refrained from looking at the television or the web. He just quietly worked on his drone or code and settled into the city. He had to figure out what he would do for income from now on. He could be a hacker for hire, there was plenty of need for those in cities like these. But he should lay low for a while.

He wouldn’t mind working a simple job. Maybe a bartender or something of the like. He was able to transfer most of his earnings from the games to an off-cycle account before the Syndicate froze it. He would be good on money for a good long while, but it wouldn’t hurt to pad the bleeding with a little bit of extra income.

He browsed his phone on his futon. He had to dispose of the old one, but not without hesitation. He ended up transferring all the data onto a hard drive before tossing it. There were pictures and videos on there he wanted to keep. Of him and the other Legends. Of Revenant. He would never get too meet them again. The memories saved onto his phone and in his mind would have to do. His old phone was itself a memory. Of the start when his and Revenant’s heads were bowed together to watch a video, building to the times when he was tucked in Revenant’s lap as they browsed the web.

He would never get to meet Revenant again. He would- he swallowed thickly around the tears building up again- he’d get over it soon. He had only been with Revenant for a few months. Would his throat always feel this tight thinking about him? Would tears always threaten to fall thinking of him? It was only a few months, why did it hurt so much? It was his own fault for getting attached to quickly. His own fault. He would get over it soon. Soon. He just had to bear with it for now. It would pass. It would pass.

His phone beeping might as well have been a gunshot for how much it spooked him. He grabbed it, hoping to get out of the sadness building in his heart. He hadn’t even realized he was crying until a tear fell on his screen as he was trying to swipe at the message. He scrubbed his face with his sleeves. Thank god it was a text and not a call. He didn’t want to hedge his bets on how bad his voice sounded right now.

His contact had messaged him to tell him that she found his augment doctors and they were willing to meet with him. And they still worked in the same town. He got up and headed for the door. This was exactly what he needed to get his mind off of… unimportant things. He hesitated at the door. Familiar red scarf was hanging on a hook right by the entrance. Water in his eyes threatened to choke him again. He averted his eyes and hurried out the door.

He called a car service and let it drive him to the better part of the city. It wasn’t better by much, but at least one could wander out here without fear of being randomly mugged on the street; the criminals in this part of the city were a little more civilized than that.

He stared up at the complex in front of him. Same old looking condominium he remembered. First floor, last door on the right. He sighed and knocked. The door swung inwards nearly instantly. A heavily augmented woman answered the door. Her hair was an electric blue, one of her eyes was a magnifying scope, her jaw was entirely metal, and that was only what he could see on her face. She positively beamed at him.

“Ah, Crypto! Our golden boy!” she exclaimed dragging him into the condo. She screamed something in Mandarin that he couldn’t understand. 

“Please keep your voice down, Terry,” he said. “I’m still a wanted man.”

“You and everyone else!” Terry laughed.

A man came up from the basement. He was just as augmented as his sister, less flashy, his hair brown, but his jaw and the sides of his face was metal. He wore a surgical outfit, a bloodied face mask and gloves thrown in the trash. “Oh Crypto!” he smiled. “It’s good to see you. My sister told me Ana was sending you over.”

Tae Joon nodded. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything, Jackie.”

“Hm? Oh, the blood? Don’t worry it’s not mine,” Jackie waved off.

“I would be more concerned if it’s a client’s,” he said bluntly.

The siblings laughed at him. “Oh, you!” Terry poked at his cheek. “You know we’re never that messy with a client.”

“I hope you’re not back because of issues with our augments,” Jackie said, walking up to Tae Joon, inspecting his features.

Terry groaned. “Better not be, you’re our best advertisement,” she said. “‘Augments so good even the Syndicate can’t find the wanted man sitting in their laps.’”

Tae Joon gave them a lopsided smile. “Unfortunately, they found me,” he said.

The siblings yelled into their hands. “THAT’S WORSE!” they yelled in unison.

“Not your fault,” Tae Joon said, trying to make them feel better. “My sister found me out.”

The siblings instantly brightened. “Oh, that’s good,” Terry said. “I mean- damn, can’t believe your sister’s a rat.”

She really did rat him out didn’t she. She led Them right to him. She betrayed him first. He left her after. Realistically, he knew she was just doing what she thought was best. But that didn’t stop it from hurting; hurt from his own sister informing his pursuers of his presence, hurt from choosing to leave her there. She wasn’t taken away this time. No, he chose to walk away this time. Throwing away his life again, that was on him. He chose this. And as much as he wanted to blame this on somebody else, this was his fault.

Tae Joon shrugged nonchalantly, as if war wasn’t raging in his mind. “She did what she thought was right.”

“You never mentioned a sister before,” Jackie said with a sigh. “If you had, we could have implemented cautionary procedure to prevent that too.”

“I didn’t think it was going to be an issue,” he said wryly.

“So, what are you here for?” Jackie asked.

“We don’t do refunds,” Terry interjected.

“Need to start over,” he said. “New identity, new occupation, new appearance, the works. Which means I need new augments.”

Jackie nodded. “Of course. What kind of augments were you thinking about?”

Tae Joon hummed. “Not sure,” he said. “What do you have?”

“Oh Crypto,” Jackie said, covering the grin on his face. “You’re a dream.”

“One of our favorites,” Terry said. “Get the books, Jacks!”

He practically skipped into a room in the back, before returning with a few thick binders in his hands. “Sit, sit,” he gestured to their dining table. Tae Joon did so obediently. The siblings sat on the other side of the table. Terry reached for the binders, but her hand was promptly slapped by her brother. “Before we get too crazy, what will the purpose of these augments be?”

“Same as last time,” Tae Joon said. “I need to hide myself.” Mila and Revenant flashed in his mind. “I can’t have anyone recognize me, especially the people closest to me.”

“And how attached are you to your body parts?” Terry asked, eyeing his hands and arms. He got rid of the tips of his fingers last time and the area around his jaw. But he knew if he said ‘not much’ here, most of him would be thrown out. Might as well replace his whole body and put him in a simulacrum. He stopped that train of thought before his mind wandered.

“I’ll consider changing some things, but I mostly want to keep my parts where they are,” he said.

Jackie shuffled through the binders before taking two and putting the rest aside. “Now, you just want to hide your identity, correct?”

“I was thinking more along the lines of cementing a new identity.”

“Oh! We have some stuff that could help you switch identities as needed,” Terry said. “Since that seems to be an issue for you.”

“That might be for the best,” he said.

“Hmm, a little tricky,” Jackie said. “But I think we have just the thing.” He opened one of the binders and turned it to Tae Joon. The page had a diagram of fingerpads. “Unlike the ones you have now, these can change to any fingerprint you want, and they match your skin tone so no one will ever know that you’re using them.”

“Interesting,” Tae Joon said. “What else do you have?”

“How attached are you to your voice box?”

Voice modulator augment, Tae Joon wondered. It was a good idea. But the idea of someone being that close to such a vulnerable part of himself. Well, he had let them work on his jaw and neck before, he didn’t know why he was feeling so hesitant now. He remembered cutting into Revenant’s neck, how slow it was, how their bodies fit together as sparks literally flew between them. The intimacy.

“Quite,” Tae Joon said. “I can just buy a modulator mask.” It would be fine. Most people wouldn’t recognize him by voice alone anyway.

“It would be useful,” Terry said.

“I’ll think about it, but at the moment my answer is no.”

“That’s fine,” Jackie said. “We can upgrade your facial nodes; our newest ones can have cameras see any face you want during facial scans. Only works in camera feeds and recordings though.”

“That one sounds good.”

“Hey! I think I have just the thing for you!” Terry said, bolting out of her seat. Tae Joon blinked as she ran past him into the back room. When she came back, her hands were occupied by a jar with an eyeball floating inside it. “I just finished running tests on this bad boy.” She placed the jar in front of him.

“An eyeball?”

“Not just any eyeball!” she said. “This is my prototype augmented discreet persona eyeball! PADPE for short!” She held it up to his face. “Beautiful!”

His face twitched as the cold glass was pressed against his cheek. “Uh, right.”

Jackie gently nudged his sister back. “As pushy as my sister is, we think that this would be a great augment for you. Hear us out.”

“It’s a prototype,” he said, wary.

“We understand your hesitancy,” he said. “But let us change your mind.”

Crypto sighed. He got the feeling this was going to be a long consultation.

\--

After hours of hashing it out with the Chang siblings, they finally settled on what Tae Joon’s new augments would be and how much he would pay. His surgery was scheduled for next week which gave him plenty of time to work on forging documents for his new identity.

He was headed back to his safehouse. He was taking the long way home, not to take in the scenery or anything, but in case someone decided to follow him home. He hasn’t noticed anyone yet; could both be a good thing or a bad thing.

A shop caught his eye, or rather a person coming out of it. They were lugging a large case on their back, a musical instrument by the looks of it. The store wasn’t very big, but it wasn’t small either. He stepped inside. The owner went old school with the design; wood floors and walls, warm lighting. The old man behind the counter nodded to him. He nodded back.

A middle-aged man came to greet him, maybe the old man’s son. “Hello! Anything I can help you with today?”

“Just looking.”

The old man and the shop attendant eyed him out of the corner of their eyes. Not enough to be rude, but enough to try and ensure he wasn’t stealing anything. He didn’t know how anyone shoplifted at a music store, the instruments were too huge to sneak out and too heavy to try and make a break for it.

The television on the wall the old man was watching had some news station on. He just hoped a wanted picture of his face wouldn’t show up like it always seemed to in the movies. His face was pretty well hidden now with a mask and his hood, but maybe they would just… know somehow.

His eyes landed on a muted blue bass. A Stein branded instrument. He didn’t know much about instruments, even less about brands. The most he interacted with the music world was listening to it and the guitar lessons he took in school as a kid. He preferred the bass. The guitar was too flashy for his taste. The bass really was an underlying factor that almost always propped up a song’s beat.

“That’s a good one,” the man said. “Stein is a very reliable brand, sturdy too.”

It might be a good way to pass the time. Just for when he needed some down time in-between coding and sneaking into corporate servers. He checked the price tag. He internally winced. Were all instruments this expensive? It wouldn’t do much to his pocket, what with all the blood sport money, but could the average person really afford to shell out this kind of cash? Back before his life went to shit, he couldn’t imagine spending this much money on one thing. He still wasn’t comfortable with the idea, but at least he could afford to.

“I’ll take it. Do you sell cases too?” Tae Joon asked.

The man smiled, a hint of shock, but mostly relief as now they were sure to make a sale. “Of course!” he said. “Would you like a hard case?”

He shrugged. “Sure.”

The man nodded and went into the back of the store. Tae Joon sighed to himself. What a compulsive purchase. He should know better than that. He didn’t even know how to play the bass. He turned to look at the television while he waited.

“Following last week’s news that Crypto decided to retire from the games-” the newscaster said. Was that what the Syndicate decided to announce? Made sense; They wouldn’t want the public to know they’ve been accidentally housing a wanted criminal that they themselves put an ABP on. It would be an embarrassment at best, but most people would take it as major weakness in security.

“The Apex Games has announced that Revenant will be on an indefinite hiatus.”

Tae Joon’s eyes widened. Revenant was on a hiatus? What did that mean? Where has he gone? Why would they let him leave if they knew he wanted to murder them all? Did they find a way to capture him? Did they find a way to reboot him? His chest screamed at that thought.

“It is unclear if Revenant’s unexpected hiatus has anything to do with Crypto’s sudden retirement, though many have noted that the duo were close friends.”

They were close. Even closer than friends. He stood there in the middle of the store, stock still, eyes glued to the screen. What happened to Revenant? He- he had to find out. But he didn’t have the same sort of access here as he did living in the Legends compound. Revenant wasn’t supposed to be caught up in all of this. Maybe he wasn’t. But he had to be. If Revenant left without Their permission, he would have been labeled a criminal or at least that he also retired. But an indefinite hiatus? Something was wrong, and he needed to find out what.


	5. Chapter 5

Gaea was easy to blend in to. So many skinsuits shedding their flesh for machine. When he wore the clothes Crypto got for him, hardly anyone bother to look at him. Hell, he wasn’t even the tallest person he’s seen around. There were a shocking number of skinsuits with leg augments, arm augments, face augments, every augment. Surprisingly, he looked more human than some of the planet’s residents. But they still had flesh somewhere, while there wasn’t a part of him that wasn’t metal.

At the moment, he and Mila’s primary base of operations was on a Syndicate owned hotel. Of course, it was one of those fancy ones, ones that Revenant was well acquainted with due to the nature of his previous line of work. Mila was set up in one of the rooms on the higher floors. He went up to check on how far she’s gotten every couple of days. They had been on Gaea for a little more than two weeks now, but all they’ve been able to gather was that Crypto was somewhere on this planet. And even that was something Mila had to tell him.

Revenant watched her as code and forums flashed across her screen, going through them at a pace that he had only ever seen Crypto achieve. Was that a hacker thing or a sibling thing, he wondered.

“Any updates?” Mila asked.

“No,” he said. He never did.

“Hm.” She turned back towards her mass of screens and continued to type.

Revenant hated that. Hated that tired look in her eyes, that exasperated way she hummed. She was disappointed at his results. He was too. He was supposed to be better at this. Or maybe Crypto was just that good.

“I might have a lead. Talk of an up and coming hacker is circling my channels,” she said. “I’ll see how good they are.” She didn’t sound so hopeful. For as often as he’s been coming up empty, every whisper Mila caught ear of amounted to nothing. Any potential physical discovery of Crypto was left to her ground team while she scoured the web for her brother. The only advantage he had was that he didn’t need to eat or sleep.

It wasn’t uncommon for hackers to test each other’s defenses, but none of these hackers were up to snuff. Mila said that it would be difficult to hack a defense Crypto put up, but every lead she found was easily broken through. None of them could possibly be her brother. Revenant believed that at least.

Sure, they were in a pseudo competition, but both of them wanted to find Crypto, so both of them shared their information. Well, Mila did most of the sharing. It was really the only reason he stuck around. She was his best chance at finding Crypto. And that admission made his plating crawl. Revenant wouldn’t share anything if he actually found something substantial.

She sighed and turned to him. Her eyes seemed the tiniest bit more awake when she looked at him. “Every time I see you in clothes, I’m shocked at how much my brother’s sense of style improved.”

Revenant was wearing a long black hooded cardigan, a fluffy olive-green scarf, white shirt, and black joggers. The girl really didn’t believe that he could go out and shop for himself? Not that he did, but he could if he wanted to. He had to wear ‘people’ clothes, he was too recognizable without them and it wouldn’t do to alert a fugitive that there are people in his area looking for him, assuming Crypto didn’t already know.

Knowing Crypto, he probably knew Revenant and Mila were here looking for him. He knew Revenant was here looking for him. He had to. And yet, he remained hidden. Chose to stay away from Revenant. Chose to leave him. It hurt in a way a gunshot never did.

“He still looks like a dork to me though,” Mila said. “Like in the games, he looks cool at first glance, but why is he wearing a vest that’s being held together by one string?”

Crypto did have some strange fashion choices at times. But Revenant didn’t think it was his place to say what good fashion was, he didn’t wear clothes after all.

“You should have seen him before,” she smiled. “Giant nerd. Dressing like a part time IT worker.”

The girl knew Crypto in such a different way than he did. She had seen a side of him he didn’t. That infuriated him. Crypto was his. All of him was his. And yet. Yet. This woman existed. Calling him a name Revenant didn’t know, referring to a time when he was a different man than one Revenant knew.

Revenant didn’t like it. He didn’t like her.

At Revenant’s silence, she sighed and rubbed her neck. “Is there something else you needed or are you going to just keep glaring at me?”

“I don’t like you,” he said.

“Noooo,” she drawled sarcastically. “I couldn’t tell.” She watched him. “Can I ask why?”

“Your existence is bothersome.”

Her eyes narrowed on him. “I’m the only one helping you find him.”

He didn’t like the way she was looking at him. It was the same sort of way Crypto looked at him when he first joined the Games. Less smug taunting, but curious and prying in a way he didn’t like. Must be a sibling thing.

“He might not even be on this planet,” Revenant said.

“He is.”

“And how would you know? Neither of us has caught a scent of him since coming here,” he snapped.

“He’s here,” she insisted. “He has to be.”

“You’re guessing,” Revenant hissed. “You’re wasting my time on a guess.”

“Like you can do better?” she snapped. “You didn’t even know this was his home planet!”

“He wouldn’t run back here just for the sentimentality.” Crypto didn’t seem the type for sentimentality. Didn’t seem the type to run back to the past just because he liked it. Didn’t seem the type to run back to him. Or maybe Revenant just wasn’t important enough to run back to.

“I’m not saying that! Logically this is the best place for him to run to,” she said. “He blends in, he knows the city, he has people here. You might not like this idea, but you don’t know him like I do.”

Revenant scoffed at her. “That should be my line. You said it yourself, he’s changed in the three years he thought you were dead.”

“As true as that is, you still can’t beat me, not if it’s finding Tae.”

“I won’t lose to a skinsuit like you,” he spat with venom. “Crypto belongs to me.”

Mila frowned. “What will you do with Crypto if you win?” she asked. “When I win, I want us to live comfortably, happy, together as a family. Somewhere nice,” she smiled to herself. “That’s all I want. That’s all I ever wanted for us. I’d even let you come along if you wanted to. I think Tae would like that.”

Revenant snarled. The idea of losing to her, of losing Crypto to her left a disgusting taste in his mouth.

She scoffed, tired. “I’m doing this for him. You’re doing this for you. If you win, what will you do for him? What can you do for him?” she asked.

What will he do after this? Go back to the games? Crypto wouldn’t be allowed to, they couldn’t continue their little game. The Syndicate said they would give him the technology to… play with Crypto, but that couldn’t go on forever despite how much he might like that, Crypto’s mind might not be able to handle that. What- What could he do for Crypto? He had been so focused on finding him that he hadn’t thought much about it.

He had no answer for her. He stayed silent.

“I see,” Mila said. “Then I have to win.” The conviction in her eyes almost had him believing in her too. She sat and turned back to her computer. “If that’s all, leave. I have work to do.”

Revenant hated this woman. If she weren’t Crypto’s sister, he’d skewer her like the rest of the Syndicate trash that got on his nerves. He didn’t want to hurt Crypto, at least, not in that way. He might do it anyway; maybe Crypto wouldn’t care, maybe he’d be pissed enough to come after him.

He walked out the door without sparing a glance behind him. Why did she have to win? She’s just as selfish. Her dream wasn’t Crypto’s, if it was, he wouldn’t have left. And- and what was his dream for them if he won? He hadn’t thought about it. He just- he just wanted to be with Crypto again.

But wasn’t that what she wanted too?

What could he give Crypto that she couldn’t? She held the promise of comfort, stability that- that he just couldn’t. All he was, all he could ever be, was a killing machine. Would Crypto really choose him over her? Crypto, who most enjoyed their quiet moments pressed together watching something or silently sharing space as they worked on their own things, wouldn’t choose Revenant over his family. Choose a killer over domesticity.

But the thought of being without Crypto hurt.

The thought of him choosing anyone else hurt. But he had nothing to offer Crypto to choose him. Sure, he had chosen to be with him during his time at the games, but that was in enemy territory, with Revenant being a possible ally. Of course, he would choose Revenant then. But now?

Crypto left him.

If Revenant were in a better state of mind, he’d be out looking for Crypto, not aimlessly wandering the streets. But he wasn’t. He wasn’t even registering the people passing him by. Sloppy. But he couldn’t bring himself to care.

Why did Crypto leave him? He could have asked Revenant to leave with him, but he didn’t. He said goodbye. He left. He left and didn’t leave a trace Revenant could follow. He didn’t want to be followed. He didn’t want Revenant. He left him. The wires in his core boiled hot. What right did he have to leave? To give Revenant a taste of what could be and taking it all away?

He slammed his fist into a brick wall, busting though into the kitchen on the other side. He got looks, but he didn’t care.

Not having Crypto, not having his presence to make him feel… alive, reminded him how little he felt before they met. How empty he was. Without purpose. No. With only one purpose. The only purpose that made him feel something. To kill. And he craved it. Craved it now more than ever. And who was he to deny instinct.

Time to hunt.

He took to the roofs. Any skinsuit would do. He just wanted to feel their blood running through his hands and their screams singing in his ears. He casually walked along the ledge, peering down at the streets down below him. There was one that stood out to him. An Asian male. Pretty, but not as pretty as Crypto. He had augments too around his eyes, but not in the right place. The synthetic skin on his neck wasn’t the right pattern nor the right shade of gray. His skin was paler as well, practically blinding with how pale he was. He wasn’t Crypto, but he would do.

He continued to follow the skinsuit until the streets became narrower, the neon lights became brighter and yet more of the signs flickered, broken. They were getting into the seedier parts of town, he’d have to snatch him quick before he got to where he was heading.

He dropped down behind him, landing with hardly a sound. He shoved the kid into an alley and muffled his yelp with his hand. He struggled; they always do. The only one who didn’t was Crypto. He liked it when they struggled, but it wasn’t the goading he had gotten so used to. The fear in this man’s eyes weren’t the cocksure ones he wanted.

This man wasn’t Crypto, but the blood on his hands would make him feel something other than longing. He wanted to take this slow. Savor it. He placed a hand against the man’s rib cage and pressed his thumb down until he felt a rib crack. The man screamed, the metal hand doing very little to muffle it. He whimpered and panted, and tears were falling from his face.

It wasn’t anything like Crypto’s.

He closed his eyes and just listened to the whimpers and pants, trying to imagine Crypto there instead. It didn’t work. The man was useless to him. His hand turned stiffened into a knife, poised to go through the man’s stomach. He hesitated. He didn’t want to dirty his clothes. His last gift from Crypto. He held the man’s face in his hands instead; he’d snap his neck.

A quiet low noise made itself known to him. He paused and listened closely; droned out the man yelling expletives at him, ignored the kicks he got to his legs. It was music. Slow, low, sounded like blues or funk or something like that. Something about it intrigued him.

He dropped the man and followed the sound. The man didn’t hesitate to run, Revenant couldn’t find it in him to care. He walked out of the alley way and found right next to him was the entrance to a bar. There was a band playing inside it, that slow, low, bass heavy music. He closed his eyes and felt every note of the bass beating low against his gut.

Revenant stayed there, leaning up against the entrance of the bar listening to the music. He didn’t know what about it drew him. Didn’t know why the urge to kill wasn’t as bad as before. He was still pissed at Crypto. Still pissed he left.

He wondered why Crypto made him… feel things. Wondered why he left him. Why he left him alone. Revenant slid down against the wall and sat on the floor, in the mouth of the alley. Fuck. Why did Crypto leave him alone? He was so alone.

Revenant sat there and closed his eyes as he listened to the low thrum of music, letting the beat of the bass settle in his core.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They are both very sad.


	6. Chapter 6

As good as Crypto was at it, he couldn’t run and hide for the rest of his life. Well, he could, but he might as well attempt do something productive during it. He was chatting with his mother using encrypted messages. She was looking into some prospective… working partners for him. Most of them were small resistance groups opposing the Syndicate. So far none of them were to his tastes. Those who could make the most out of his work would be an organized crew.

He wondered if she knew Mila was alive. He was debating on whether or not he should tell her. That her daughter chose to side with her kidnappers and pointed out her son as an offering. He wondered if Mystik already knew, but he felt like she would be angrier or at least frustrated with his situation if she did know. She would have brought it up.

His new coworkers, er, his new bandmates were messaging him, telling to be on time for the warmup before their job tonight. He just finished eating dinner and was going to head out soon. They were pressuring for him to be on time because last time he was a little late. Okay, a lotta late, but he was busy trying to weasel himself into the Syndicate’s systems. His backdoors were either gone or boobytrapped to ping his location, so he had to make a new way in. Despite his alarm warning him of the time, he had ignored it thinking that he would just need a few more minutes. Normally at those times, Revenant would-

He’d better leave now before his bandmates gave him shit. His black tee and jeans would be fine. He took a comb and ran it though his now long hair, extensions, just until his hair could grow out a little more. The hair serum his contact gave him worked wonders; his hair grew an inch in a week. People would sooner search for a fugitive with short hair or a shaved head than one with long well-kept hair. And it helped hide his face a bit. He put his voice modulation mask over his mouth. It doubled as a filtration device as well; the air in Gaea wasn’t the best.

He gave himself one last look over in the mirror. His outfit was fine, it would work well with the black boots he had by the door. His facial nodes were in different places now, faint scars where the old ones used to be. Terry tried her best to heal them up, but it would take time for them to go away completely. His left eye, his new one, was a familiar orange, though with less glow. He thought a lot about what color to make it, hell, he could change it whenever he wanted. But he liked orange. It reminded him of Revenant, of what he had to leave behind, his failure.

He put on a hoodie and grabbed the case for his bass before leaving for the bar.

It wasn’t uncommon for people to have eye augments, but this one was special. He could make it any color, copy any pattern, eye scans would always have the results he wanted. It had night vision, heat scan, a functioning screen that only he could see; everything people had to pay millions for a clunky eye attachment was his new eyeball. And he didn’t have to pay a cent.

Terry and Jackie said that testing it out would be payment enough. It was too good to be true. He was just waiting for it to backfire horribly; maybe through side effects or the Changs wanting their tech back and leaving him eyeless. His right eye was still the same though, they only had one prototype. It was always hidden under an eyepatch just in case someone decided to subject him to a retinal scan.

The siblings thought it was cute and gave him back his eye after surgery and put it in a little jar for him to take home. It sat in his closet in his safehouse.

The band Tae Joon joined was more casual than anything else, which was good, he didn’t think he could throw himself in the music world. They played at the bar three to four times a week and met up once a week to work on their stuff. It wasn’t high paying, barely enough to pay rent at his shitty rundown one room apartment, so he suspected they all did this as their side job. He was glad that he turned out to be rather decent at the bass, he still had a lot of learn but at least the band’s music was simple.

He got to Owl’s Nest bar with 10 minutes to spare. He nodded to the owner behind the bar and walked into the back room where his bandmates were waiting. Most bars didn’t have live bands anymore, but this one was kind of old school that way and it had enough business to continue hiring them.

“Look who it is!”

His band had four people including himself. The guitarist was a tall woman with brown hair, Bree, she was the one who had to switch on and off bass, but she was much better at guitar. Zach, a blond blue-eyed young man, was the vocalist and one of the guitarists. For their sort of music Zach didn’t need to play often and much to Tae Joon’s surprise, he didn’t need to sing very often at the bar. Their drummer Robin was a bald dark-skinned man who was as quiet as he was big, which was very.

“Seung,” Zach came over and patted him on the back. “You’re actually on time!”

Tae Joon huffed. “One time.”

“One time too many, new guy,” Bree said, shaking her head.

There wasn’t much space to practice back here, and Robin didn’t have his drumset, but warming up a little in here was better than going cold out there. “What are we playing today?” He asked.

Robin handed him a paper with the pattern of songs they would play.

“Thank you,” he said.

Robin nodded to him and went back to hitting the drum practice pad in front of him. Tae Joon looked at the list and tried to recall the songs in his head. He pulled out the sheet music and practiced a bit with Bree coming over occasionally to help him out. They knew he wasn’t the most experienced at this, but he also didn’t mind the poor pay, so they didn’t complain when he needed some tips.

A few of their songs had no vocals, which put a little more pressure on him since he was the only one on bass. The band wasn’t hired really to be a band per say, they were more live mood music for the bar. It was an easy job; most patrons wouldn’t notice or didn’t mind that they repeated a few songs throughout the night.

The band walked out of the back and onto the stage. Playing wasn’t an issue anymore, two weeks was enough for him to get over his jitters. His band showed that they were able to cover up the few mistakes that he made within the first few days.

They were setting up and no one really paid attention to them. They were more focused on getting drinks and waving down a waiter to order some food.

He tested the sound of his bass through the speakers, plucking the strings a few times. This job would hurt more if didn’t have these fingerprint augments from the Chang siblings. Four hours of nearly nonstop play was normally hell on a newbie’s fingers, but he didn’t need to build up callouses when his finger pads weren’t real.

No one really paid them any attention. Zach didn’t need to introduce the band before Robin set the beat by stomping his heel. Their music was loud enough that the whole bar could hear it, but not blasting the patrons’ eardrums. People chatted over their music. He didn’t mind. It made it easier on him, less nervous. He didn’t have to look up at the crowd and no one could get a good read on his face when he was looking down at his bass.

He occasionally glanced up. He had to be sure of his surroundings, of the people around him, he was a wanted man after all. Around the first hour, he felt eyes on him. His brain stalled when he saw glowing orange eyes staring him down. He knew those eyes. They were unmistakable to him.

Revenant. Standing there by the entrance.

How did he find him? Has he been looking for him this whole time? Was he still the same Revenant he knew or where his worst fears true? Did the Syndicate find a way to reset him? Did they send Revenant to look for him? Was his Ppalgan gone?

Tears choked him, threatening to spill out. He didn’t know if he could cry out of his false eye. He had done his damnest to remove his mind from Revenant and Mila. He didn’t want the pain that came with those thoughts.

Revenant was wearing the clothes he picked out. His last gift. Maybe- maybe this was his Revenant. His leg stuttered; he wanted to go over to him. He didn’t even realize his fingers stopped moving until Zach was shaking him.

Tae Joon’s head snapped to Zach, away from Revenant.

“You okay?” Bree asked, standing next to them. “You just stopped halfway through the song.” Zach drank his water, giving them an excuse for the prolonged pause.

“Yeah,” Tae Joon said. “I just- I lost my place.” Robin raised a skeptical brow.

Tae Joon glanced back at Revenant. He was gone. Shit. Was that just a hallucination? Did he imagine Revenant there? He was losing his damn mind, wasn’t he? He rubbed his new eye as if it was playing tricks on him. Was this a side effect? It had to be. Revenant couldn’t be here.

He had tried to find out where Revenant had gone, what the Syndicate did to him. But their firewalls were tough, especially now that he lost all the access points he painstakingly developed during his time as a Legend.

“Seung, you still good to play?” Zach asked.

“Yeah,” he said. He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Did you- Any of you see like a tall guy with glowing eyes in the back?”

Bree cocked her brow. “Uh, wasn’t really paying attention.”

Robin shrugged.

“You sure you’re okay?” Zach asked.

“Yeah, yeah, my eyes were probably just playing tricks on me,” he said.

Bree shook her head. “This is why I don’t trust augments that connect directly to your brain. That shit fucks with you.”

He didn’t know what was worse; Revenant actually being there or it being a hallucination. One held the possibilities of all his fears becoming true, the other just meant he had shitty doctors. He hoped it was the later.

He took a couple of deep breaths. “Okay, I’m good.”


	7. Chapter 7

“Anything to report?” Mila asked, not bothering to turn away from her computer.

Revenant hated how she thought she was his boss, like she had any control over him. He said what he says every time. “No.”

She sighed the same sigh she sighs every time; tired and disappointed. “Alright, do you want to go after a lead I have, or should I send one of the grunts to do it?”

What so he could become one of her grunts? He scoffed.

That was enough of an answer for her. “Where have you been staying?” she asked. “You hardly ever go back to the room you were given.”

“Does it matter?”

“Just don’t cause too much trouble.”

“I’ll do what I want.”

She brought her hand up to her temple and sighed, looking down at her keyboard. “They should have just left you in the games,” she muttered.

“Big talk from someone who also hasn’t be contributing much.”

“At least-!” She took a deep breath and returned her hands to the keyboard and her eyes to the screen. “You can leave now, or would you rather start another fight?” she asked in a sarcastic tone.

The gall of this woman. He remembered not even a month ago her meek attitude when facing Blisk. A month was hardly enough time to heal the subservience that was beaten into her. It meant she just didn’t see him as much of a threat as Blisk. He had been letting this disrespect go on for too long. He’ll fix that.

He ripped her from her chair and shoved her through the window, holding her by her shoulder. She screamed. Of course she did. “What are you doing?!” she yelled, holding onto his arm. The little guards that were posted in the hallway, kicked in the door and raised their weapons at him. They didn’t fire. If they did, the woman they were assigned to protect would be dead and he would turn and kill them as well.

He watched her eyes flick to the nothing underneath her and his arm then up to his face, over and over, her fear building on her face in a delicious way. He should have done this a long time ago. Crypto had made him soft. But Crypto wasn’t around anymore.

“I don’t like you,” he said simply. “You’ve forgotten who has the power here.” He gestured to the people over his shoulder aiming their guns at him. “They can’t save you, not from me.” She struggled against his hold, trying to draw herself closer to the room. “You live because I allow it.” He watched her grit her teeth; defiance.

He let go.

Her face morphed to shock, realization, and fear in quick succession. It was glorious. He wanted to just let her fall. Watch her disappear from his sight into a tiny miniscule dot. To leave the building and see her body splattered on the ground.

He grabbed her forearm and threw her onto the floor of the room. At the moment, she was his best chance at finding Crypto. Until that was no longer the case, she would live.

Revenant crouched down next to the heaving woman. “You might belong to Them, but you’re all at my mercy.” He patted her cheek mockingly. “Remember that.”

He left her there, shaking on the ground. He shouldered past her guards. Being around them made unearthed the bloodthirsty nature Crypto distracted him from. Or at least with Crypto, he sought quality kills, not just the mundane slaughter or skinsuits.

He found that the more he thought of Crypto, the more he missed him, the more he wanted to kill. Sometimes it got too much to hold back. He’d go out and kill. The first time he did it, Mila was visibly pissed, but had tried her best not to lash out at him. She had said that corpses with his MO popping up would tip off Crypto and he would leave Gaea.

He has tried to rein in the bloodthirst the best he could, but it was… difficult. The longer Crypto was gone, the more he craved what they had, the more he tried to fill it with what worked before, but now it wasn’t enough. Had Crypto been his drug? Ah, that’s what it was. He was addicted to Crypto and he needed his fix.

He desperately needed… something. He needed to kill, but the woman was right. If he alerted Crypto to their presence, he would run, run further than he could catch up to. He stalked through the streets; fist clenched as he made his way to an area that was becoming ever familiar.

That bar that he stumbled upon was quite possibly the only this keeping this whole town from drowning in blood. He didn’t know what about it, but the music that played there, for some reason, was able to calm him. It didn’t appease his need for blood, but it kept it at bay. For the moment.

Revenant wasn’t sure what about it calmed him. They weren’t that different from the other bands. The music was slow purposeful. All the instruments were equal, the singer never overpowered the music, the drums didn’t overpower the other instruments, the guitar never overshadowed. Through all of it, the bass became more present. Every string plucked resonated in his sternum. Like a heartbeat.

The bar had music playing every day, but for some reason there was only one band that quelled the bloodlust. That band only played a couple of times a week. They days they didn’t were the hardest. When he wasn’t out looking for Crypto, he was thinking about how good it would feel to slide his hands through a skinsuit’s chest. He slipped up once… okay, maybe twice and killed some men, but he cleaned up after himself. Not even that Syndicate woman knew.

“Come on, man. We don’t want to hurt you.”

Revenant glanced at the altercation occurring down the alleyway. He never bothered with it, not unless he was looking for a fight. But something, rather, someone caught his attention. The bassist of the band he liked to listen to at the bar was being shoved against a wall by three unfriendly looking men.

“Just hand over your shit.”

The bassist looked at the men, unimpressed, but didn’t look to be taking any action against them. “You’re going to make me late,” his electronic modulated voice replied. “The least you could do is mug me after my gig.”

“Bitch has some sass.” One of the men shoved him harder, the case on his back thumping loudly against the brick wall.

“Hey,” the bassist said, grabbing the arm.

Revenant wanted to watch, see what the man would do. But he’d hate to have the bassist’s instrument unable to play tonight. It was the only thing that kept the bloodlust at bay. Well, perhaps he could satiate that now as well. Win, win.

“Well, what do we have here?” Revenant slowly stalked towards the group.

All eyes turned towards him. He never realized how little of a face the bassist had. The voice modulator mask took up half his face, there was an eyepatch over his right eye, and even his left eye was an augment; no one had natural orange eyes like that.

It was strange seeing the bassist eye widen like that, shock and a hint of… maybe fear. Fear was a normal reaction to him, so it shouldn’t have been strange. The bassist wasn’t scared of three men’s harassment, but he was scared of Revenant? Maybe it was just because he was far taller than any of them.

The three men didn’t seem to recognize when they were outmatched. That’s alright, they’ll learn.

“A dumbass,” one said mockingly. He raised a gun at him. “Feel free to empty your pockets for us too.”

“I don’t really like guns,” Revenant said. Faster than the men could blink he was in front of them. He crushed the man’s wrist, causing him to scream and drop the gun. “It’s so… distant.” He grabbed the man by his neck and squeezed. “I like it up close and personal. I wonder how much pressure you can take until you pop.” It would be messy and get all over his clothes, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

The man’s friends raised their own guns.

Revenant chuckled; low and dark. “If you run now, I’ll let you go while I kill your friend. Or you can stay and try to fight me. I don’t mind either way. More things to play with.”

He man was gurgling as his grip tightened even more. A gentle hand landed on his shoulder. The bassist stared up at him. If he snapped this skinsuit’s neck right now, would the bassist ban him from the bar? He sighed, probably wasn’t worth risking it. He dropped the man. “Run before I change my mind.”

The man scrambled onto his feet. “Fucking freak!” The trio ran for the other end of the alley. Revenant watched, making sure they didn’t turn around to get a quick one over him.

The bassist was staring at him with awe, eyes wide. Revenant suspected that under the mask his jaw was slack. He shook himself out of the stupor when he noticed Revenant staring back. “Thank you,” he said shyly, his voice modulator almost not registering the quiet words. The man’s shirt was a little ruffled and his long hair falling out of its braid, but otherwise he looked unharmed.

Revenant scoffed. “I didn’t do it for you.”

The bassist’s expression softened, at least as far as he could tell with how much it was covered up. “Of course not,” he said. “I-” he cleared his throat. “I see you at the bar sometimes.”

Revenant looked away, mildly embarrassed. “You must not have a lot in your head if you have enough room to remember me.”

He laughed. “You’re kind of hard to miss.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Do you like the music?”

“It’s mediocre at best.”

“You think so? Sorry about that,” he looked away. He hesitated, seemingly thinking hard about something. “What do you come for then? I don’t see you really ordering any drinks.”

Damn, observant little- “Why are you creeping on customers, huh?”

He chuckled. “I’m not. You’re just the strange guy who always stands by the door.”

“You’ve got shit service skills if you’re calling customers strange.”

“We’re not at the bar, you’re not a customer yet,” he said. Revenant could hear the smirk in his voice. Again, he paused. “I’m headed there now, want to come?”

There was something strange about this bassist. Revenant couldn’t get a good read on the man. But that may just be due to the fact that nearly his entire face was covered. He seemed both eager yet hesitant to talk to him. Perhaps he was nervous about speaking to someone who just minutes before threatened to kill a man in front of him. Nervous, but not scared. Why was that?

“Fine.”

They walked together in silence. The bassist would glance up at him occasionally, but otherwise kept to himself. Sometimes he looked like he wanted to say something, but nothing ever came out. It was strange but Revenant decided to take the initiative.

“Why are you wearing that dumb mask?” Revenant asked.

“Helps filter the pollution. I have weak lungs,” he said.

“And the voice modulation?”

“Makes me sound cool.” It most certainly did not. It wouldn’t make a nice sound if he screamed; too scratchy. Foolish skinsuits trying to play machine.

The bar was quiet, it usually was. Even during its busy hours, the chatter was never obnoxiously loud like other bars could be. That was one of its best aspects, one of the only reasons this was the one he bothered to hang around besides the music.

Revenant noticed the guitarist standing by the bar and stopped short, unwilling to talk to another skinsuit. The bassist went over to her and exchanged greetings. He sat himself at the end of the bar and ordered the most expensive drink; it would be on the Syndicate’s tab after all.

“Hey,” the bassist came back to him. “We’ll start playing in about half an hour.”

“Mhm.” What did it matter?

“Uh-” there he went again, hesitating. He looked to the guitarist before turning back to him. “We get a long break after the second hour of playing. If you’re still around, I’d like to talk to you.”

He shrugged. “If I’m still around.”

Something hopeful sparkled in the bassist’s eye. Revenant couldn’t understand why, but it was there. Strange, he couldn’t get a read on the man before, but in that one moment it was so clear. There was something familiar about it. But he couldn’t place it.

The bassist went with his bandmate into the back of the shop. The woman was giggling the whole way. He wondered if they were in a relationship. Perhaps not with how often the woman looked back at him. Maybe she was just curious. Or maybe she just liked exceedingly tall men who only had their glowing orange eyes showing. Probably just curious.

A drink was deposited in front of him. The bartender nodded to him as he handed over a card. “Would you like for me to open a tab?” he asked.

“No,” he said. “Just this for now.”

“Of course.”

When the bartender turned away, he stared the drink down. He couldn’t drink it. He physically couldn’t digest it. Liquid wouldn’t do anything to him, but it would be annoying to get out. He could taste it if he wanted to. Normally he would taste it off of Crypto’s tongue. But Crypto wasn’t here. He dipped a finger in the expensive liquor and tested a drop on his tongue. It was pretty good, and for the price of it he would hope so. He bet it’d taste better on Crypto.

He missed being able to drink. He had never missed it before, but now he did. Less about the drinking aspect but the effects of it. What he wouldn’t do to forget this loneliness for just a while. Fuck, he missed Crypto so much. Dumb skinsuit. How did he ever let himself get so attached? He knew better than this.

Hindsight is 20/20 after all.

That itch was crawling back. Now he wished he hadn’t agreed to walk with the bassist to the bar. He could use the time to find someone to… entertain his needs. No, no, he had fucking self-control. He just needed to wait until the band started playing. Shit, his bloodlust was never this bad before; insatiable to the point of- of becoming an addict. He just- he just wanted to do something about this emptiness Crypto left behind.

The band came out and started setting up on stage. He watched the bassist move about the stage. What was his name again? Did he ask? He must not have. The bassist glance at him and quickly averted his eyes. Maybe he got nervous when people were watching. If that were the case, he shouldn’t have joined a stage band.

Revenant noticed that all three other members of the band glancing over at him, gossiping in all likelihood. The singer and guitarist kept sending grins at the bassist, while the drummer just shook his head. Was the bassist perhaps interested in him? No, the exasperated way the bassist looked at them likely meant that they were simply teasing him.

Revenant paused and looked away from the group, back to the glass in front of him. In almost an instant he had forgotten his desire to kill. In thinking about that band, or rather, that bassist, he had pushed aside that itch. Even now, think about the itch, but in the context of the bassist relieving him of it, he wasn’t feeling it as strongly.

What was it? What was it about that bassist? It didn’t fill the emptiness Crypto left in him, but it distracted him. What was it? Was it the idea of being around others, of interacting with them? No, the disgust roiling in his gut told him that wasn’t true. The idea of hanging around skinsuits revolted him. As for the bassist… maybe a little less disgust.

He should really ask for his name later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> c:


	8. Chapter 8

They had a forty five-minute break in the middle of their four-hour session. It wasn’t a lot, but it was better than nothing and the owner provided them stools on stage for when their legs got tired. The band put their instruments in the back during their break, all except the drum set.

“Is Seung’s fan still out there?” Zach asked.

“He sure is.” Bree grinned.

Tae Joon rolled his eyes. “He’s here for the band, not me,” he said.

“You say that, but that dude only ever had his eyes on you,” Zach laughed.

Robin nodded.

“That’s not true,” he objected. It was, but why? Why did Revenant only ever look at him?

“He totally saved Seung,” Bree said. “Like a knight in shining armor.” She swooned exaggeratedly.

“I did not say that.”

“But he did!”

“Don’t oversell it,” Tae Joon scoffed.

“He’s definitely got the hots for you,” she winked.

Tae Joon huffed. He didn’t know how to feel if it were true. It would be- it would be good he supposed. That Revenant didn’t have to feel the pain he feels when looking at him, when remembering their time together. But he’d be more heartbroken if anything else. The idea that he spent all this time longing for something Revenant didn’t care much for was heartbreaking. Here he was risking his cover to speak with him just because he was too greedy to stay away.

He shook his head. No, he had to figure out why Revenant was here.

“You ready, Seung?” Zach asked. “We only have thirty minutes left.”

“I’m coming.”

Bree and Zach made a beeline for Revenant before he could stop them. Zach held out a hand. “Hey, I’m Zach!”

“I’m Bree! We heard you were a fan!” She grinned.

Revenant tilted his head slightly as he stared down at them.

“I did not say that,” Tae Joon said.

Revenant scoffed. “Well I certainly didn’t.”

Zach hissed. “He’s a harsh one.”

“Don’t you have fries to eat?” Tae Joon snapped harshly.

“Oof, this one’s harsh too,” Bree laughed. “It’s almost like-”

Tae Joon covered her mouth. “I’m going to stop you right there. Go eat. You only have thirty minutes.”

“Boo, you’re no fun.”

Robin grabbed her and nudged her towards the other end of the bar. He turned briefly to give him a thumbs up. Tae Joon huffed and took a seat next to Revenant.

“Sorry about that,” he said. He looked up at Revenant, at those glowing orange eyes. The same orange his own new eye copied if even in a duller fashion. His heart was in his throat, a combination of excitement and frustration. He got to talk to Revenant again. He got to talk to Revenant. But he couldn’t talk to Revenant as Crypto. He had to pretend like they were strangers. Because that was what they were now. Strangers.

“Your name,” Revenant demanded.

“Seung,” he said. “And yours?”

Revenant hesitated for a long time. Maybe too long. “Just call me Red.”

It felt like all the air was sucked out of his lungs. He almost reached out to him. He almost raised his hands to hold him. He almost threw everything out the window. But he forced his arms to stay at his side. He forced himself to breath again.

Red. Revenant’s color. Ppalgan. His Ppalgan.

“Want to get lunch sometime?” he asked. His eyes widened when his brain caught up with his mouth. “With me?” Well, that didn’t really help.

Revenant’s eyes widened, just slightly, just enough that hardly anyone would notice. But he did. He always did. “No,” he said after some time. “I’m seeing someone.”

Tae Joon blinked at him. It certainly came off that way didn’t it. And he certainly meant it that way. “Ah, I didn’t mean it like that,” he said quickly. “I just wanted to thank you for helping me.” Thank the stars he was wearing this mask; he was grinning so damn hard he was sure it was reaching his eyes. He’s never been cockblocked by himself before.

Revenant looked away, maybe embarrassed that he read the situation wrong. Even though he read it right. “I didn’t do it for your thanks,” he said.

“Maybe not, but I would like to thank you,” Tae Joon said. It was probably a good thing Revenant rejected his offer; he certainly didn’t want to risk Revenant recognizing him if he took his mask off to eat. He still didn’t know why Revenant was here.

The Syndicate was here looking for him. He heard from some of his contacts that there has been an influx of hackers’ defenses being prodded. After looking into it, he knew who it was. Mila still had that terrible habit of leaving her signature somewhere in the code; cocky.

If they were both looking for him, if the Syndicate willingly let Revenant come here, were they working together? Was Revenant working for them? It seemed unlikely to him. He wanted it to be unlikely. He didn’t think Revenant had been reset, he still showed affection for Crypto. If the Syndicate truly had Revenant wiped, they wouldn’t let him remember someone that might make him stray. But that meant that if Revenant was working for Them now, he was doing of his own volition. That someone else Tae Joon loved chose to side with Them.

He had to figure out why Revenant was here.

“What’s your story?” Tae Joon asked.

Revenant tilted his head.

“Everyone in this town has a story,” he said, leaning slightly forward, resting his arm on bar. “What’s yours?”

Revenant watched him. “I’m looking for someone.”

“That’s it?”

He glared. “That’s it.”

Tae Joon smiled tiredly to himself. “Are they important to you?”

Revenant was silent for a while, long enough that he thought maybe he wouldn’t respond. He turned away. “The most,” he said quietly.

The Syndicate definitely didn’t reset Revenant. Tae Joon looked down at his lap. He could tell Revenant now. Maybe Revenant would be happy to see him. Maybe they could take down the Syndicate together. Maybe they would run away together. Maybe they could be together. He wanted to be them to be together.

But there was a chance that Revenant would hand him over to the Syndicate just like Mila did. And he wasn’t a man that liked to take chances.

“Would you like some help finding them?” Tae Joon asked. The best way to get Revenant off his tail was to lead him down a different path. “If you don’t want a meal, I can thank you this way.” He hated how easy it was to lie to Revenant, how natural lying came to him.

“How are you supposed to help me?” he questioned, skeptical.

“Well, not me, but I know some people.”

“I don’t trust you.”

Tae Joon scoffed. “No one in this city trusts anyone. But if you want to get something done, people here know how to get it done. For the right price.”

Revenant thought for a moment. “He’s rather elusive.”

“I bet. Think about it this way, even if my help turns out to be nothing, at least I’m not charging you,” he said. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Fine,” he relented.

Tae Joon grabbed a napkin and scribbled down his contact information. “Text me so I’ll have your number.” He chuckled when a text from an unknown number simply read ‘Red.’ “So who are you looking for?”

“You know of the Apex Games?”

“You’d be hard pressed to find a person on the frontier who doesn’t.”

“I’m looking for Crypto. The legend that recently retired.”

“That’s who you’re looking for?” he asked as if he was surprised. “Retiring after just one season is pretty rare. Maybe the games didn’t suit him.”

“Doesn’t matter why. He’s on this planet somewhere. When I see him, I’ll ask him myself.”

“Alright, I’ll ask around.”

Revenant stared at him. He was staring so hard he began to wonder if his cover was blown. “What’s your story?”

That he was a world renowned hacker that got in too deep, framed for the murder of his sister, chased into hiding, where he had to become a whole new person, hacked himself into the Apex Games to find justice, fell for a simulacrum, got chased out of the games by his supposedly dead sister, and was now back on his home planet laying low. “Lost my home,” he said. “Not really interesting.”

“Hm, I know what that’s like,” Revenant said quietly. He nudged a drink over to him hardly touched by the looks of it. “You can have this,” he said. “Not to my taste.”

“Thanks,” he said. “But I can’t really drink with the mask on.”

Revenant looked at him like he was stupid. “Then take it off.”

“If I do, it gets kind of hard to breath,” he lied. “I’ll get some water when I get home later. Besides, shouldn’t really drink on the job.” He wondered why Revenant even bothered to order the drink if he couldn’t digest it. “Do you always come here alone?” he asked as if he didn’t already know. “You should bring your friends around next time.”

“I don’t have any friends,” he said bluntly.

Tae Joon snorted, as curt as ever. “I’m not surprised. You’re pretty prickly,” he said. “Good thing I have thick skin.”

“Seung!” Zach called him. “Break’s almost over.”

“Already?” He checked the time on his phone. He didn’t even notice. He got out of his seat. “I’ll talk to you later,” he said to Revenant. He raised his hand slightly as a goodbye and went to join his band.

Tae Joon wished he had a little more time to talk to Revenant, but he had a way to contact him now. His phone was a burner, specially made so that location couldn’t be tracked, and all data was erased every 24 hours. It wasn’t an uncommon sort of phone to have in this city.

Zach waved at Revenant who seemed to ignore the gesture. Tae Joon and Zach walked into the back room where Bree and Robin were waiting.

“So how did it go?” Bree asked hoping out of her seat.

“How’d what go?” Tae Joon asked.

“Talking to your fan,” she teased.

“He’s not my fan,” he insisted again.

“Okay, maybe not but he definitely wants you,” Zach grinned. “He ask you out?”

Tae Joon chuckled. “On the contrary, I asked him and he told me he wasn’t interested.”

“What, really?!” Bree gapped at him. “That’s crazy. I totally thought he was into you.”

He shrugged. “It’s fine. I told you he was just here for the music.”

“Think he’ll stay until the end of our shift?” Zach asked.

“I’m sure he has other things to do.”

He was confident Revenant didn’t know his true identity. He had to find out if Revenant was working with Them- working for Them. The easiest way to do that was to lay down some bait and see what sort of fish came to it. And he had an idea of what sort of bait to provide. Doctoring some footage wouldn’t be hard finding someone to mockup some sort of fake file would be easy. He just hoped the fish he would catch would be the one he wanted; red and snappy.


	9. Chapter 9

In an unexpected turn, Revenant was called back to visit Mila. He had not been going as of late, he hasn’t had the need to. Mila never had any productive information for him, going to see her now wouldn’t change that. But he had some time before he had to go meet up with that bassist, Seung.

They were meeting up later in the evening, he had free time before that, so he didn’t mind coming to see what the woman wanted. If he didn’t, he would have ignored the call altogether. It wouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes anyway. Maybe she finally made herself useful.

When Revenant entered her room, Mila’s shoulders hitched up to her ears. Good. Good. He would hate to have to reeducate her on what real fear felt like; it would waste his time. “You called,” he stated.

“You’re supposed to check in every few days,” she said. There were guards inside the room now, it wasn’t surprising, but still useless.

“I am not a caged bird like some,” he said.

“Anything new?” she asked.

He thought of the bassist, of the agreement to aid him in finding Crypto. “I don’t have to tell you.”

“You do,” she said. “The Syndicate won’t provide you with the resources to search for him if you don’t. They-” she hesitated, “they won’t give you the respawn technology if you do catch him.”

“I don’t,” he said. “I think you forget, all of you forget, that I don’t have to be here. I can do what I like, can have him if I like, can kill all of you if I like. And none of you would be able to stop me.”

Mila was quiet and just stared at him. Her eyes looked tired, more so than last time he saw her. “I don’t know what you want me to say,” she said, looking away from him. “We’re supposed to be working together.”

“Beg.”

Her eyes widened, darting between the two guards in the room. They tried their best not to look her way. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.” Revenant sat down in the plush seat and rested his chin on the back of his hand. “Beg.”

“I don’t even know if you have anything new to report,” she said.

“Did you ever really?”

“All you have is your pride,” she snapped. “You act all high and mighty and nothing else.” She crossed her arms and stared him down. “I had hoped Tae had better tastes in men then he did women, but I guess that was just wishful thinking.”

He growled. “Do you really want to test my patience again, girl?”

She glared at him but said nothing more.

He stood and went to the door. “I think we’re done here.”

“What did he see in you?” she asked. “Why you?”

She watched him, the eyes on his back the same prying ones he knew Crypto had. Looking for a weakness, digging beneath the surface. He hated it. It disturbed him on Crypto and he hated it on her. They were certainly siblings.

“I wonder that too sometimes,” he said quietly. Mila’s eyes widened at the honest response, surprised, even more so because of who it came out of. “It’s probably the huge vibrating metal dick.”

She sputtered. “That’s my brother you’re talking about!” she hissed.

Ah, even she could make such an amusing face. He still missed Crypto’s. “You asked.” He turned to leave. “Don’t call me again.”

No one followed him out of the hotel. Good. He didn’t want them poaching the bassist’s information if it did hold something substantial. Seung… It wasn’t hard to follow the man home. Though it was a bit harder to spy on the man while he was there. The only window to the shoddy apartment led to a rusty fire escape that directly faced the wall of the next-door building.

The security in the area was lax, and by that the cops were lax. Seemed like the only law that mattered here was the gangs’. There were thugs all over the place if you knew where to look. He suspected the bassist did; he had very skillfully avoided coming into the line of sight of any rough looking individual without actively looking like he was avoiding them. It could have been luck, but it didn’t seem that way to Revenant.

Some unsavory folk were posted outside of the bassist’s apartment. Last time he had been here, they were harassing the landlords; a pair of wrinkly old skinsuits, husband and wife. The time before that they harassed a few of the tenants. He didn’t care very much what they did, but if they hurt his one lead to finding Crypto, he’d slaughter them like the pigs they were.

The bassist told him that his contacts came back with something. His contact would be handing off a hard drive with all the data on it, they just had to go out and retrieve it. Well, the bassist would be getting it first before giving it to Revenant.

Revenant wasn’t supposed to be meeting the man in front of his home, but he was… cautious; skinsuits were so fragile. The bassist was punctual if nothing else, he was out of the door 15 minutes before 8pm, the arranged time to meet. As expected, the thugs approached him.

“Yo, you live here?” one of the men asked.

The bassist eyed them, but never slowed his pace. “Not interested,” he said.

“Hey, we’re talking to you,” the other woman said, grabbing his shoulder.

He shrugged her off. “No solicitations, please.”

“We’re not trying to sell you shit, idiot!” the man said.

He sighed. “Are you lost?” he asked. “Make it quick, I’m short on time.”

“Are you retarded?!” The man grabbed him by the collar of his jacket. “Hand over your wallet!”

The bassist looked them both up and down and sighed again. He pulled out a 20-credit bill and pressed it into the man’s hand. “Buy something warm to eat for you and your friend,” he said. “The homeless shelter on Plast road has nice warm water in their showers.” The two thugs were a little too stunned to do much but gap at him confused. “Take care of yourselves,” he said quickly before slinking into the crowd.

Revenant followed him. When they were far enough away from his apartment, the bassist turned to make eye contact with him and waved him over. After weaving through the crowd, Revenant found himself looking at Seung.

The man always had his ventilator on along with an eyepatch. He wondered why Seung didn’t just get the eye replaced like the other one was; but if the skinsuit wanted to cripple itself like that, who was he to interject. His hair wasn’t braided like he usually had it when he was playing on stage. It was long and straight, shiny and silky in a way that irked him with the way the light was bouncing off it.

“I thought we were supposed to meet at 34th and Robinson,” Seung said nonchalantly. He rearranged the collar of his jacket. It was black with a fur-trimmed hood. He was wearing a black turtleneck underneath and green cargo pants tucked into combat boots. It was a very Crypto-esque outfit, but if there was anything he learned being on Gaea for the past month and a half was that everyone on this planet dressed like Crypto.

“They weren’t homeless,” Revenant said.

He scoffed. “Of course they weren’t, but it shut them up didn’t it?”

Crafty thing. “You have the data?” he asked.

“No, my guy is going to pass it to me at the shrine festival at Neonpoint.”

“And why couldn’t he just send you the file online?”

Seung shrugged. “A file transfer like that would draw a few eyes,” he said. “You wanted this under wraps, right?”

“Right.”

“So, we meet my contact at the festival.”

“Did it have to be at a festival?” he almost grumbled. He didn’t of course, but Seung might have caught it anyways by how smug he looked.

“There are so many people there that no one will pay attention to any of us. It’ll be easier to hide the hand off, just in case we have… curious eyes,” he said knowingly. Revenant didn’t like how knowingly that was. Seung looked him up and down. “You look good in red, Red,” he said, chuckling.

Revenant picked at his red hoodie, the one Crypto got him. “Mm.” He liked to think that Crypto had good tastes and knew what looked good on him. But in reality he wouldn’t have known, Crypto was really the only person to put him in clothes. _You should have seen him before, giant nerd_. Ah, that heavy feeling crawling up his chassis again.

“Hey,” Seung said. “Let’s get moving.”

Revenant didn’t feel the usual distain at being told what to do.

“So, are you looking for Crypto for personal reasons?” he asked.

“Does it matter?”

“Not really, I’m offering help either way,” he shrugged. “Just curious. Seemed kind of personal to me.”

“How do you guess?”

“You said he was the most important, right?”

“He is.”

“You don’t have anyone else helping you?”

He hesitated a moment. What harm would it do to tell this one skinsuit? “I do.”

The bassist’s eyes widened. “What do you need my help for then?” He chuckled. “Hope I’m not stepping on any toes.”

“You’re fine. They’re not much use to me,” he said. “I’m hoping you’ll give me something more.”

“Oh,” Seung scratched the back of his neck. “What were you to him?”

Revenant hesitated. He wondered that too. Crypto became… everything to him in just a few months. Crypto made him feel things again. But what was he to Crypto? “I don’t know.” Not much by the looks of it. If Crypto had cared enough, he wouldn’t have left him like that. Not even a proper farewell. _They found me_. Though it seemed like that option was taken from him, from the both of them.

“You loved him?”

Incredibly so. Revenant looked away from him. “Let’s just get that data.”

The festival was filled with people. Lanterns floated in midair, giving off a warm orange light. There were stalls in neat rows running all throughout the park. Some were games, some shops, and many were food. Seung walked up to a little stall selling trinkets.

“Don’t we have to find your friend?” Revenant asked. He didn’t have time to waste milling about here. Every second he spent here was another second Crypto would use to get further from him.

“He’ll find us,” he said. He turned a small wooden owl in his hands and put it back. He checked the time on his phone. 8:15. “No need to rush. If you’re too obvious when looking for something, people will notice, get curious.”

Revenant looked around. No one seemed to pay them any mind. He didn’t see any of that woman’s people either. But there were so many people here, would he even notice if someone was watching him. He received a nudge to his side.

“Relax,” Seung said looking up at him. “Get your mind off things for a while. Even if it’s just for a little while.” He walked over to the next stall, he glanced over to Revenant. “Come on,” his tone was light, amused even.

He could all the signs of a smile in the parts of his face that were exposed. For a flash, not even a second, he imagined Crypto there instead. He reached out for the bassist’s face, to hold it like he would Crypto’s. Seung flinched; flinched hard. Revenant froze and lowered his hand back to his side.

“Oh- uh- sorry,” Seung stammered. “Please don’t touch my ventilator.” He looked guilty, away from Revenant.

Why was he sorry? It made sense for the bassist to be defensive over his ventilator. He needed the thing to breath after all. It was Revenant’s fault for being rude. His fault for thinking of Crypto there instead. His fault for being weak. It was his fault.

“No, my bad,” he said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Seung said, he playfully slapped Revenant’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s have a look around.”

Revenant didn’t argue this time.

Seung looked at a red oni mask. The stall mostly had masks on display. A few sparklers as well. He picked up a white fox mask and turned it in his hands.

“Isn’t enough of your face covered up?” Revenant asked.

Seung laughed. “You’re not wrong,” he said, putting it back.

They wandered from stall to stall. Seung taking his time to look at the merchandise, while Revenant waited for him. He occasionally glanced at anything he found interesting but did little more than that.

They were at a stall selling more trinkets when Seung bounced excitedly over to him. “Look! They have a figurine of you!” he said.

Revenant froze. Did he notice that he was Revenant, Legend of the Apex Games? Sure, his glowing eyes were rather noticeable, but he didn’t think it would be too odd in Gaea. He made sure his face was covered at all times. Was it his voice?

Seung held up a plush mummy. It had fake red blood on top of its head and on its chest and shoulders. The area around its eyes was black with only yellow eyes showing. Seung slumped its shoulders and crossed its arms. Oh. That was what he meant. Teasing him like Crypto liked to do.

“I do not look like that.”

“Like a mummy or grumpy? Because you certainly look like both.”

He looked between the man and the doll. “You’re incredibly rude.”

Seung stiffened and slowly lowered the plush back onto the counter. “Sorry,” he said. “You remind me of a friend. And I guess I just kind of forgot you aren’t him.”

Revenant scoffed. That would explain why he was so open with him. “You’re an idiot.” He sighed. “But I’m used to idiots.” Seung visibly perked up at that. Revenant could practically see a dog tail wagging behind him. “Are you going to buy the dumb thing or not?”

Seung shook his head and continued on the path. He weaved through the crowd like it was second nature, Revenant couldn’t help but be in awe at how seamless it looked. He wondered if Crypto would have been the same, growing up in these busy streets. He wondered if Crypto moved through a crowd like that.

“Hey,” Seung said, grabbing a hold of his hand. Revenant didn’t even notice he was lagging a little too far behind. “You shouldn’t space out in a crowd like this.”

Revenant pulled his hand away. “I’m not a child.”

Seung stared at his hand and stuffed it in his pocket. “Of course not. Just don’t get carried off. And if you do get lost, just head to the lost child stand, they’ll make an announcement for me.”

“Is everyone from this planet insufferable shits?”

Seung laughed. “Woah, isn’t your ‘most important’ Crypto from this planet too?”

“He too is insufferable.” But Crypto was his insufferable shit.

“Oh!” Seung ran ahead. When Revenant caught up, the bassist was looking up at the menu of a stall making scallion and kimchi pancakes. They also had sweet pancakes with assorted toppings. “These look really good.”

Revenant stared at Seung, at the mask wrapped around half his face. “Can you eat with that on?”

Seung froze and lightly touched his mask. Then became visibly dejected. “No. Maybe I’ll get some to go later,” he said to himself.

Revenant just stared at him. That reaction was almost as if he forgot the ventilator was there in the first place. And that expression was something Crypto had been prone to doing when denied. He could imagine being here with Crypto instead of the bassist. He wished he was. He wondered for a moment if Seung was- But why would he be being doing all this if he was. It wouldn’t make any sense. It was just wishful thinking on his part. Hoping something of Seung that wouldn’t be true.

A loud clap shook him out of his stupor. Seung was looking up at him with concern. “Where do you go when you stare into space like that?” he asked.

“To him.” Always to him. Always to Crypto.

“Hey, don’t look so sad,” Seung said softly, as if he were talking to a spooked dog. “You’ll find him, I’m sure of it.”

Revenant sighed, if even this skinsuit could see through him, he really had gone weak for Crypto. He shook off the ache. “I’d better, otherwise I’ll come after you for giving me bad intel.”

Seung laughed. “I’ll get you an ice cream cone, would that make you feel better?” he teased.

“I’m not a child!”

Seung waved him over to a stand. It was a shooting game; hit the item off the rack and you get it. He put down 5 credits on the table for two tries. “Which one do you want?” Seung asked.

“What?”

“I’ll win you a prize,” he said. “Which one do you want?”

Revenant looked at the options. Most of it was stuffed animals. None of them had a use to him. “Why don’t you win one for yourself?”

“You’re no fun.” Seung looked at his options. “I want the squishiest one.”

Shooting that one would be the worst choice. The squishiness of it would absorb the shocks of the pellets too well and make it much harder to move. Still, Seung took aim at a fat seal. Oh, he was definitely not moving that one. The center of gravity was too low for it to move.

“It would be cheaper if you just bought that one,” Revenant said.

Seung turned to him. “Pick a different one then.”

He huffed and looked at the options again. There was a small nessie fidget squisher on one of the upper racks. “That one,” he said pointing to it.

Seung squinted at it. “Oh! That’s cute!” He aimed at it and grumbled. “I don’t have a good angle on it.”

It didn’t take a genius to know these sorts of games were at least a little rigged. In this case there were a lot of stuffed animals that would be hard to move or tiny trinkets or toys that would be hard to hit.

Revenant huffed. “Hand it over.” Seung quirked a brow but did as he was told. Revenant raised the toy rifle and shot at the little nessie. He grumbled when the pellet hung too much to the left. He heard a snicker from Seung. Dumb little rigged stand game bullshit. He adjusted for the way the gun shot and nailed the little nessie off its perch.

“Nice shot,” the man behind the counter said, grabbing the tiny thing and handing it to Revenant.

Revenant glared at the little green nessie and squished it twice between his fingers before tossing it to Seung. “I don’t want it,” he said turning away the stall.

Seung caught it as it bounced off his chest. He squished the nessie the same way, smiling at it softly before pocketing it. “Thank you.”

Revenant scoffed. “You paid for it.”

“But you won it.” He patted Revenant once on the back. “So thanks.” What a strange man. “Are you good at other festival games?” he asked.

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Because you haven’t tried it,” Seung said, amusement a light in his eyes. He grabbed his hand and pulled him to follow. Revenant didn’t bother to take his hand back as he got dragged around the festival grounds.

They went to a ring toss that Seung paid 10 credits for 20 rings which he shared with Revenant to throw. Between the two of them, they only managed to score two white prizes, both of which were scored by Seung. Revenant could tell he was smirking behind that dumb ventilator, as if a simple ring toss game was enough to prove his superiority. Their two white prizes became two tiny teddy bears. One of which, Seung shoved into Revenant’s hands and insisted he take.

They found a goldfish scooping game next. A simple game where you had to scoop goldfish up with a thin paper scoop and any fish you scooped into the bucket was yours to keep. Catch was that the paper scoops broke easily, almost instantly. Damn game was impossible. Revenant grumbled as his fourth scoop broke. At least Seung wasn’t doing any better, mumbling curses under his breath.

“Stupid game,” Seung hissed as his last scoop broke.

“I don’t know why I let you talk me into this,” Revenant said.

“What does it matter? I already paid for it.” He did pay for 10 scoops, five for himself and five for Revenant.

“What a waste of credits,” he said.

There was fish swimming close to the top of the water. Revenant watched it. It was orange, black, and white. Just as it breached the top, he swiped at it with his scoop, managing to get it into his metal tin before the paper tore.

“OHH!” Seung exclaimed excitedly. “You did it!” He held onto Revenant’s shoulder, gripping it tightly.

There was something light, almost fluffy in his chest. He did manage to do it. He got it. Seung was looking at him, the parts of his face that were visible were brimming with joy. Revenant felt phantom muscles trying to pull his metal mouth into a grin.

“Congratulations,” the stall owner said smiling at them. Of course, she wouldn’t complain, she just got 10 credits for one stupid little fish. She bagged the goldfish in a floatation bubble and handed Revenant the remote that would keep the fish hovering over him.

The fish swam around his head. Which had Seung snickering. “You have a cute little new friend,” he said.

Revenant handed him the remote. “I don’t want it.”

Seung stared it and the goldfish. “You sure?” he asked.

“I can’t really take care of it.”

He looked up at Revenant with soft eyes. “Okay, I’ll take care of it for you. What do you want to name it?”

“Huh? Name it whatever you like.”

“Salty,” he said poking gently at the bubble. “Like you.”

Revenant stood up. “Should name it Rude after yourself.”

“Hey, you dropped something.”

Seung picked it up off the ground. It was the little plush nessie keychain he got from Crypto’s room, slightly singed from that day. Revenant snatched it out of his hand, holding it close to his chest.

Seung stared at him, his face blank. He stood up and tucked his hands in his pockets. “It’s very cute,” he said. He nudged Revenant playfully. “I didn’t take you for the type.”

“I’m not,” he said. “I’m just holding it for someone.”

“How kind,” he said, but it lacked the sharp witty tone, it was soft, almost wistful.

Seung continued to walk, hands firmly stuffed in his pockets, glancing at the stores occasionally. He moved through the crowd so fluidly that it was jarring to see him bump into someone. But he kept on walking until he was at the end of the stalls, until they were on the outskirts of the festival, grass and trees appearing in their line of sight.

Seung turned to him and held out a hard drive. Revenant’s eyes widened. He nearly forgotten that this was the whole reason he was here. He- The bassist made him forget, even if it was just for a little while.

When? When did he have the time to meet up with his contact? Revenant was practically by his side the whole time. Did he have it the whole time? No, Seung said they were meeting his contact during the festival. No, he said his contact would hand it off to him during the festival. When? Was it that person bumped into him? It had to be.

Revenant took it from him.

“Sorry it took so long,” Seung apologized. “It might have taken him a little longer than usual because we were goofing off a bit there.”

“It’s fine,” he said. And he meant it. He- he had more fun today than he has in a while. The last time he enjoyed himself this much was- was with Crypto.

“I’m rooting for you, Red,” Seung said. “Tell me how it goes.”

“You’ll be the first to know if it leads to nothing,” he said, too lighthearted to be a real threat. Seung smiled at him as he left, merging back into the crowd. He wondered what Seung would do now. Skinsuits were so weak that this one couldn’t even survive without a ventilator on, he couldn’t help but be concerned. Only slightly. Poor thing couldn’t even eat outside of his home. Probably went to get those pancakes he was staring at earlier.

Wait, hadn’t Seung ask him out to a meal the first time they met?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :3c


	10. Chapter 10

Tae Joon carried a large tote bag filled with groceries back to his apartment. If he was smart about it, it would last him a week. And he got takeout from that really good Chinese place a few blocks away. The old man behind the counter became fond of him and gave him two extra wontons. His just got paid from his work with the band. He was in a stellar mood.

He was shoving his keys into the entrance to the little apartment complex, if it could even be called that, when a hand landed on his shoulder. He glanced at the hand, large and callous, probably one of the gang members that has been harassing his landlords. Well, there goes his mood. They had been trying to force the old couple into selling the land to their boss, either by harassing them or harassing the tenants. If tenants stopped living there, and they could not pay the property tax, then they would have to sell.

He sighed and turned. Three men surrounded him. He didn’t like where he stood. He was boxed in. The single door entrance was right next to the protruding wall of the laundromat next door. And unfortunately, two of the three men were taller than him and the other was probably the same height as him. He recognized one of them from the other day.

He tilted his head innocently and smiled the best he could with one eye. “Do I know you?”

“You’re that bitch-” the one man started.

“Calm down, Hass,” another said.

“Motherfucker thinks I look homeless!” Hass said, reaching for him.

Tae Joon took a step back, further cornering himself. “Honest mistake,” he said keeping his tone light. “Who else begs for money like that?”

“I was not begging! I was threatening you, dumbass!”

“Hass!” the other man said.

“Kan-”

The other tall man, Kan, smacked Hass. “I told you to calm the fuck down.”

The shortest man sighed and turned around leaning against the wall, acting as a lookout. Well, that was never a good sign.

Kan turned to him. “Now let’s get a good look at you.” He brushed away some of the hair in Tae Joon’s face.

Tae Joon smacked the hand away. “Personal space.”

Hass scoffed. “Not much to look at. More than half the dude’s face is covered.”

“Hass, I know you’re real dim, but if you could shut the fuck up for once and actually pay attention, you could learn a thing or two,” Kan said, tilting Tae Joon chin up. “This modulator is probably worth what you make in three months.”

Tae Joon shoved him away, glaring. He could try to get into the entrance, but he wouldn’t slip in fast enough that they couldn’t hold the door open. He didn’t want them getting into the narrow complex and away from prying eyes.

Kan reached for him again, but he smacked the hand down which earned a quirked brow. “The augs on his face ain’t nothing to scoff at either.” He shoved Tae Joon up against the wall. “What’s a guy with this much money doing in a shit hole like this?”

Tae Joon shoved back. “I got this stuff for free,” he said. That was a lie. “All experimental.” Less of a lie. “I could die tomorrow.” That was true at least.

“Yeah?” Kan grinned down at him, leaning into his space. “Well, if it’ll kill you, you won’t mind us taking it.”

They weren’t going to let him go no matter what he said. He’d have to leave this apartment. But that would be playing right into the gang’s ploy, and Tae Joon hated being used like that. He could just destroy the gang and bring some peace to himself, his landlords, the other tenants, and honestly a large part of the district. But he’d have to do it quick before the members had time to retaliate against him.

Didn’t sound too hard.

Tae Joon punched Kan with a right hook that couldn’t possibly belong to an amateur. He kicked him while he was down and stomped on his face. Hass tried to help but got promptly got his head slammed into the wall. The third man didn’t even turn around to look, probably thinking that the sounds of blows landing were his buddies’.

“For someone who complains about your friend chattering on and on,” Tae Joon kicked Kan once more. “You got a motor mouth on you.”

Hass pushed himself off the wall and tried to throw a sloppy punch. Tae Joon kicked him firmly in his gut, sending him stumbling into the lookout.

“Bitch!” Kan hissed. “I’ll kill you!”

Tae Joon sent him a sly smile. “I’m going to break your nose now, so your friends will have to take you and leave, okay?” Kan’s eyes widened but before he could say anything, Tae Joon’s boot was knocking his nose crooked. “That’s bleeding quite a bit,” he turned to unlock the door. “I recommend seeing a doctor to set that straight.”

He made sure the door was firmly locked behind him before walking up the narrow stairs. He texted an anonymous tip to the Gaea police. They wouldn’t be here immediately, maybe not even tonight, but that was fine. He didn’t need the cops to catch them, just to deter them from bothering him for a while, he’d have at least a day after the cops left to execute a plan.

He’d have to come up with a plan first, but it couldn’t be that hard. The gang was small time, once he got rid of the leader and the lieutenants, it would fall apart. It wouldn’t be hard to figure out who they were, their schedules, then it would be as simple as knocking them over one by one. He had the money to pay other people to take care of it. If he wanted to save, he could take care of it himself; he had gotten adept with a sniper rifle during his time at the games.

Tae Joon climbed up to the fourth floor where his apartment was. He toed off his shoes before stepping into the apartment. He placed the takeout bag on his desk and went about putting the groceries away. By the time he plopped down on his chair, he just wanted to eat his wontons and gravy noodles. He removed the eyepatch and his ventilator. But he had to figure out what to do about that little gang.

He booted up his computer while he leaned back in his chair. He looked at the fishbowl with Salty swimming about. He wiggled a finger at it and threw in some fish pellets and watched it suck up the food like a vacuum.

He grabbed a hair tie out of his drawer, tying it into a messy bun before taking a sip of his wonton soup. A small disk on the table projected a screen with green outlines. He swiped through tabs before sighing and pulling them all up at once. He surrounded himself with seven different windows, chat rooms, news etc. He was in the process of vetting a resistance to provide his services to. They seemed promising. If the militia were still around, he might have gone to them, they probably wouldn’t be too pleased with a mercenary group getting a strangle hold on the frontier. 

He pulled up any public news he could find of the people he encountered minutes ago. The NeonBloods. Used to be really powerful at one point but has been on a downward spiral since their 4th generation leader died, with every subsequent leader more stupid than the last. They seemed to be on their 9th now. Poor things. He’d put them out of their misery.

He poured the gravy over his noodles and immediately broke off a chunk of the crispy noodles. He turned on a match of the games, a little curious on how the other Legends were doing. He wondered how the viewership was doing, they usually introduce one new Legend per season and rotated out the ones not pulling any money to keep things fresh. But with him and Revenant leaving, the games were the same as they were three seasons ago.

The after-game interviews were a bit of what he expected. Most of the questions have moved on from asking about his and Revenant’s disappearance, but sometimes there were follow ups. Mirage and Wattson were the worst at hiding how downtrodden they seemed about the whole affair. He didn’t doubt for a second that Caustic, Bloodhound, Bangalore, and Octane didn’t care much about them, curious about their departure at best. The rest of them were rather stoic about it, but the change in their normal behavior when those questions cropped up seemed to indicate that they felt some sort of way about it all.

He wondered if their viewpoint of the Apex Games or of the Syndicate had changed any or if they were like Mila and were content to sit knowing all the wrong the organization does so long as they got what they wanted out of it. Well, most people would look out for themselves. His mindset was a bit of an oddity, which was why it was so difficult to find a good resistance to offer his services to.

Tae Joon grabbed his empty takeout containers and threw them in the trash. He perked when there was a knock on his door. Wait no, opposite direction, the window? He grabbed his mask and fastened it in place. Was it those NeonBloods? No, they wouldn’t knock. He turned off his computer’s monitor, the tabs condensing back into one before the green light faded.

He grabbed his wingman from under his desk and made his way over to the window. He pulled back the curtain and blinked owlishly at Revenant on the other side. Well, this was a bit of a surprise. He held up a finger, gesturing to Revenant that he needed a moment and closed the curtain on him again.

Thank the stars that he knew better than to keep his old things out in open view. His drone was in a lock box in the back of his closet. He grabbed Revenant’s old scarf from the doorway and placed it in his closet.

He opened the window for Revenant. “Hey,” he greeted. “I don’t recall telling you which apartment I lived in.”

Revenant shrugged. “Not hard to find out.”

“My very own stalker,” he sighed. “You coming in?” He stepped back.

Revenant looked around the small room, the barest hint of nervousness. “May I?”

“Wouldn’t have offered if I minded. Just take off your shoes first.” Revenant took off his boots and left them on outside on the fire escape. Tae Joon looked around his room, he didn’t have another chair in this place, too small and he wasn’t really expecting people to visit. He closed the window and gestured for Revenant to take his desk chair. He didn’t take it. “Was the data any help? Did you need something else?”

It had been a week since the festival. He hardly saw Revenant outside of when the band was playing, and even then, it was few and far between, not sticking around to talk.

“I followed his trail the best I could, but he still eludes me,” Revenant said.

That wasn’t surprising, Tae Joon tailored it so that his trail would end in an abandoned warehouse at the northern port in the next country over. He had surveillance there to see who would come, Revenant or the Syndicate. Or worse, both. Neither went by there yet. The results would dictate if he told Revenant his true identity or not. He just hoped that Revenant would understand why he hadn’t told him. 

“Sorry to hear that,” Tae Joon said. “So why are you here? Making good on your threats?”

“No,” he said. “I-” he hesitated. “I needed a distraction.”

“What kind of distraction?”

Revenant grumbled to himself. “I just want to get my mind off of things.” He stepped closer.

“I’m not a dealer if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I don’t need drugs,” he said frustrated. Not that Revenant would be able to take human drugs anyway. He grumbled. “I was hoping for-” he sighed.

Oh, that did not sound… helpful in maintaining his cover. “Oh, I don’t really sleep around like that.” At all. He scratched the back of his neck nervously. He wondered if it would be considered cheating if Revenant cheated on him for… him.

“No, I didn’t mean it like that,” Revenant said, a little flustered. “I just- I meant- Could you play me a song?”

Tae Joon blinked at him. Did he like the band’s music that much? “I don’t mind, but it won’t be the same without the other guys.”

“I don’t need them.”

He would be lying if he said that didn’t make his heart skip a beat. “You really know how to flatter a man,” he chuckled. “Make yourself comfortable. Standing around like that makes me a little nervous.” He grabbed his bass off its stand and checked the tuning. “Say hello to Salty too,” he gestured to his desk.

Revenant looked at the fish, seemingly scowling at it before sitting himself on the futon. Tae Joon chuckled; that was definitely a Revenant greeting. He tested out a few cords. Revenant wrapped his arms loosely around his legs, making himself as unimposing as possible and waited for Tae Joon to start playing.

He plugged his bass into the amp and turned the music way down. It wouldn’t sound quite the same without it, but he didn’t want to keep the whole floor up. While he was setting up, he got curious. “What do you need a distraction from?” he asked.

“Doesn’t matter,” he replied gruffly.

“Since I’m giving you a personal concert, it kind of does.”

Revenant looked down at his hands. “I miss him. Sometimes it gets too much.” He hesitated. “Your music helps calm me.”

Tae Joon sat down next to him. “I get that,” he said. He too was looking for a distraction when he left. It was why he took up bass playing. It was why he avoided the news and anything about the Games while he was settling back into Gaea. His fingers moved along his bass as he played. He still had to look down at them, be wasn’t good enough to have the muscle memory of where all the cords were. “If it hurts you that much, maybe you should let him go.”

Revenant looked at him. “I can’t,” he said quietly.

Tae Joon chuckled drily and look at him through the strands of hair that fell out of his bun. “I get that too.” He closed his eyes, focusing on the way the bass reverbed back on his fingers. “But there’s two people in a relationship. He left for a reason. Shouldn’t you respect that?”

“No, he’s mine. He had no right to leave me in the first place.”

Well, that wasn’t very healthy. But unsurprising. He knew Revenant thought that way about him, but the opposite was just as true. There was a part of Revenant that was inexplicably attached to him, that would go above and beyond to keep him by his side. He was as much of Revenant’s as Revenant was his.

His hands never slopped strumming the even beat on his bass. “You might want to consider not being so dependent on him. It’s not good for you or him.” A grip on his shirt and a harsh shove jostled him out of playing.

“Don’t tell me what’s good for me,” Revenant hissed.

Tae Joon rested a hand on the fist. “Are you saying that because you don’t want me to say it or because you don’t want to hear it?” He looked at him lopsidedly. “There’s a part of you that knows it’s true, knows that your obsession isn’t healthy for either of you.”

“You don’t know me,” he spat.

He did. “Maybe not, but I’ve seen this situation before.” He gently pried Revenant’s fingers apart. “It never ends well.”

Revenant snatched his hand back. “I didn’t come to talk, just play.”

Tae Joon didn’t hesitate to comply, hands moving back onto his bass. “Talking helps. Talking to someone helps more than you think it would. I won’t say anything.”

Revenant said nothing and Tae Joon didn’t say anything about it. He just kept playing, going through the band’s songs, and some that were still being worked on. He messed up a few times, but Revenant made no mention of it. Revenant slouched lower and lower as the night went on.

“I hate him,” Revenant finally said. Tae Joon’s fingers only paused for a fraction of a second. “More than anything I hate what he has turned me into. He can trip me up with words alone. He surprises me more than any other skinsuit ever has. I can’t predict him. I’m always thinking about him. Even things that brought me great pleasure before can’t compare to my time with him. He made me weak.” Revenant’s hand clenched into a fist. “He became so… important to me. And he left me. So easily. I was that unimportant to him.”

He pulled a string back too roughly, the sound that came out didn’t sound right. That wasn’t true. It wasn’t. He wanted to tell Revenant that, but he said he wouldn’t say anything. It was important that Revenant got these words out, even if it was to a stranger.

“I’m pissed,” Revenant continued. “At them for driving him away. At him for not coming to me. He’s smart. I know he knows I’m on this planet looking for him, but he won’t come to me,” he growled out that last bit. “I want to ask him so many things. Why didn’t he come back to me when they found him? He knew that I would have slaughtered them all if he just asked. Why won’t he come find me? Why did he leave me here alone?” Revenant released his fist and curled in on himself. “I’m tired of being alone.”

Tae Joon stopped playing. He almost told Revenant the truth right then and there. But- but this was important for him to go through this without him- without Crypto. He needed to not be so dependent on him. It was important for Revenant to go through the motions and revealing himself now would only disrupt that. Soon. Maybe. Hopefully.

Tae Joon instead gingerly placed a hand on Revenant’s shoulder. “Hey, you can stay here tonight,” he said. “I’ll keep you company. You don’t have to be alone.”

Revenant didn’t say anything.

Tae Joon stood up and placed his bass back on its stand. He yawned and stretched. “Do you need anything to get ready for bed?” He knew the answer.

Revenant shook his head no.

He went into the bathroom and rushed to get his nightly routine over with. Brush his teeth, wash his face, undo the tie on his hair and brush any knots away. It would be uncomfortable sleeping with his mask on, but he would deal with it.

When he came back out Revenant was still sitting on the futon, in the same position as when he left. Tae Joon crouched down next to him and gently nudged him to lay down. “Do you want to sleep on the inside or the outside?” he asked. The futon wasn’t that big, it would be a bit of a squeeze, but it would really only be uncomfortable for the only fleshy person in it.

Revenant stayed where he was, on the outside of the futon. He was looking stiff. Tae Joon wouldn’t be surprised. Who wouldn’t be uncomfortable sleeping in a bed with a relative stranger?

Tae Joon stepped over him and tentatively laid down himself. He hiked the blanket over himself and Revenant. His shoulders were rubbing against Revenant’s hard one, so he shifted to lay on his side. He brought the blanket up even higher, just under his chin and snuggled into the warmth. Revenant had his head turned, watching him.

Tae Joon breathed. “You’re not alone, Red.” He shut his eyes. “I’ll be here for you,” he whispered before drifting off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will not be adding any revealed lore from Season 5. I'm thinking about writing a little something for it now that it's out but it won't be part of this universe and I'll probably start working on it after this fic is done.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First things first, 
> 
> Black lives matter.
> 
> If you disagree or your reaction is "all lives matter", please leave because you don't deserve my content.

Revenant was a simulacrum and simulacrums didn’t need sleep. But just for a short while he wanted to let it all go, let the quiet of nothingness take him. He shut down his systems, shut down everything and set a timer. Six hours. After six hours, his orange eyes blinked back to life. In an instant six hours was gone. The six hours he would have spent thinking about Crypto, being… haunted by his departure was gone.

He stared up at an unfamiliar ceiling, dingy, and by the looks of it, growing mold in the corner. It was still too early for sunlight to come through the window. But the room was lit in a muted blue. Then he remembered where he was when he shut down. He turned his head to the left. Seung laid there curled on his side, forehead resting against his arm. His hair was all over the pillows, the ventilator distorting his quiet snores.

It was kind of cute.

He slowly sat up as to not wake the sleeping bassist. He went over to the desk and watched Salty swim around the fishbowl for a bit. He noticed a can of fish food by it and decided to drop a few pellets in. The fish immediately went to the surface to gobble it up. It seemed well taken care of, colorful rocks littering the bottom and a fake treasure chest. It could probably do with a proper tank, but it was just one goldfish. Seung didn’t seem to have room for a tank anyway.

On the other side of Seung’s desk sat the little squishy nessie he got him during that festival. Well within reaching distance. He wondered if Seung toyed with it often. It reminded him of the little nessie he carried around with him. He palmed his breast pocket to make sure it was still there.

His eyes trailed back over to Seung.

Seung looked pale in the blue light. The slow rise and fall of his chest was mesmerizing in the same way Crypto’s-

He froze. He was getting them mixed up. His feelings for Crypto was getting mixed up with Seung. Was this normal? Was he at such a loss with Crypto that he was looking for a replacement for him? Could anyone replace Crypto for him? He found it hard- impossible to believe. He didn’t love Seung the way he loved Crypto.

He was just missing him. He was just missing Crypto so bad that his faulty circuits latched onto the next closest thing. This- this wasn’t the same. I couldn’t be. But then what was it? What was this?

He left through the window. Putting on his boots before shutting the window behind him and taking to the roofs. He was getting so muddled and confused. Crypto did this to him. Crypto messed him up, confused him in a way he never had before. He needed to stop this. He needed to get himself sorted. But how could he when he didn’t know what _this_ was?

He could… but that just that idea made his gut fill with disgust. But she was, unfortunately, the one person that would answer him honestly; one that spoke before thinking.

Mila was asleep when he snuck into her room. The woman’s guards were abysmal. Sure, sneaking around guards and surveillance was part of his profession, but the guards might as well have been asleep standing up for how observant they were.

The curtains were closed, keeping the sunrise from waking her. She likely had the same sleeping habits as Crypto; sleep at the ass hours of the morning and wake up at noon, still not getting doctor recommended eight hours of sleep.

Revenant wasn’t about to wait that many hours for the woman to wake up. He kicked her bed. She jolted up, head whipping around the room before landing on him.

“Wha- Revenant?” She rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

“How do you know you’re in love?”

“What?” her asked him, confused.

“How do humans know when they’re in love?”

“Wait, I don’t understand.”

“Have you lost IQ since I last saw you?”

She looked at him, obviously tired. “I need coffee.” She got up and went to the coffee machine by the TV. Revenant scoffed, truly Crypto’s sister. He mercifully allowed her the 5 minutes it took for to brew a cup. She sat back down on her bed and sipped at the black sludge in her cup. “What were you saying?”

“How do you know when you’re in love?” he asked in a growl, annoyance in his voice and stance.

She looked at him blankly and took another sip. “Uh,” she chuckled nervously. “Is that a serious question?”

He kicked her bed again, almost making her spill her coffee. “No, I just woke you up at 6 am to waste both our time.”

“Hmm,” she stretched out her neck and thought for a second. “You kind of just know.”

He growled. “That answers nothing,” he hissed.

“What am I supposed to say?” she retorted. “Even normal humans struggle to recognize it sometimes.”

“You’re useless!”

She rolled her eyes. “Is this about Tae?”

He averted his eyes. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I met someone. He makes me feel… nice.”

Mila gaped at him. Her mouth opened and closed like the dumb goldfish in Seung’s apartment.

“I don’t know what about him makes him different.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” she held up a hand. “Did you wake me up at ass-o-clock in the morning to talk to me about a boy?”

He snarled. He did not like this situation being reduced to that. “I just need you as a reference to understand what this person is to me.”

“Are you telling me you think you’re in love with this man?”

“I’m not!” he snapped. “I can’t be. I-” If that were true, if he really fell for another man in less than a month, what was he here for? Why chase after Crypto if he got over him so easily? Why did thinking about Crypto still hurt so much?

“Well, how do you know you love Tae?”

He floundered for an answer. Someone saying it so blatantly made him feel uncomfortable. He wasn’t supposed to, but he did. He missed Crypto. Missed him so much. It was like the man had an iron grip on his chest, every time he thought about him. “I don’t.” He did. So much that it hurt.

Mila scoffed. “Yeah right. Fly yourself to a whole new planet and search for a man for over a month and you don’t love him.” She finished her coffee and got up to brew another cup. “What about this other guy caught your attention?”

“His music.”

Mila hummed. “I didn’t expect you to enjoy music. Seems like such a human thing for you.”

“The way he plays the bass is… soothing.”

“Is that the only thing you like about him?”

Playing the bass was the only thing that man was decent that. Seung was quiet, prodding but not prying, he was sweet, and could turn it around on him in a second. He was so much like Crypto. Was that it? That had to be.

“He reminds me of being with Crypto,” he said.

“But he’s not,” she said. “I’ve been through that myself a few times.”

“Did you love them?”

She shrugged. “Hard to tell. Maybe I just had a type. But maybe they were just a replacement.”

Was that all Seung was? A replacement? Probably. But it felt wrong to call him that. “How do you tell the difference?”

“That’s just something you’re going to have to figure out,” she said. “But hey, if you do love this man, feel free to leave Tae for him.”

She chuckled, but it was dry, and she looked down at the cup in her hands thoughtfully. She looked like she was regretting the words that came out of her mouth. Truly the move of an idiot. But that was why Revenant came to her, because she lacked that filter.

“Liar.”

She glared at him. “I’m not,” she insisted. “But it would be kind of be fucked up if you left just left Tae for some other guy.”

He scoffed. “You were the one who suggested it.”

“Well, I didn’t really mean it,” she huffed. “That would- that would hurt Tae. And I don’t want anyone to hurt him anymore.”

“Quite the contradiction.”

“Whatever. I’m not telling you what to do. Sort your own feelings out.”

“I don’t have feelings!” he snapped on instinct.

“Look at yourself! Coming to a girl you hate to talk about a guy you have a crush on! Of course you do!”

He cringed. She wasn’t wrong. But this was all so new to him. He never experienced feelings before. “But I still feel… things for Crypto. Do humans normal feel things for two different people?”

“Oh my stars, just say you love him already.”

“I don’t!”

“Would you be okay with tell Tae that to his face?”

He… did not like that thought. Telling Crypto he didn’t love him felt wrong. It didn’t sit well with him. But admitting that he did also made his wires twist. He had no answer for her.

She chuckled. “That’s what I thought.”

“How do humans normally sort out these feelings?”

She shrugged. “Do you cling to him because he resembles Tae?”

No one was quite like Crypto. Seung was similar some respects but he wasn’t Crypto. “He pales in comparison.” He hesitated. Seung did resemble Crypto, but did he cling to the man because of it? “I don’t know.”

“Well, neither do I. Maybe next time you see him, just think about what you like about him and why. Is it because it’s something Tae would do or because it’s just… cute?”

He grumbled. Would that help? Did he even want to feel that sort of thing for Seung? He needed to think some things through.

“Hey, by the way, don’t cheat on Tae!”

Revenant blinked at her. “You were just telling me to run off with this man.”

“Yeah, so you can sort out your feelings, but if you actually want to be with this other guy, you better cleanly split things off with Tae!” she said. “I will not tolerate you breaking my brother’s heart!”

Funny. Even though it was more like Crypto broke his. He went to the door and didn’t even feel satisfaction when the guards outside jumped a foot in the air at his presence.

He looked through the data Seung gave him on some roof by the water, the docks. It was more information on Crypto’s whereabouts than even Mila could dig up. It still wasn’t much, but he managed to scrounge up a trail; that’s more than he could say for Mila.

Judging by this data, Crypto might be in the next country over. Revenant followed the trail as far as it could take him, but everything was pointing to Crypto taking a ship and leaving. He stared out into the open water. He should leave and go on to further investigate. He had to do it without that woman finding out. That wouldn’t be too difficult.

It was strange. Since finding an actual clue to Crypto and on working his way to the man, he hasn’t felt that insatiable itch to kill. He hadn’t found himself needing to go to the bar to calm himself. And yet he still found himself wanting to go. He wanted to go see Seung, listen to the man play the bass. It was all very confusing for him. He would much rather leave to go find Crypto, but that didn’t ease the part of him that wanted to be around Seung.

Emotions were confusing and they hurt and he hated them. Hammond should have done a better job to erase them from him.

He didn’t know how long he sat there trying to figure himself out, but by the time he decided to move, it was dark out. He stared up at the dark sky. That meant he spent at least 12 hours just… crouched on a rooftop. Gah, dumb human feelings making him do dumb human things.

He stood. Might as well look into how abouts he would get past the border without a professional hacker figuring him out.

A bullet hit the back of his skull. He fell forwards, playing dead. Who in the world was dumb enough to try to kill him? It couldn’t be the Syndicate; they would have known such a puny hit wouldn’t damage him. He’d wait until they got close. Then he could have some fun.

His attacker shot another bullet into the back of his head and proceeded to walk to the other side of the roof. How strange. The mystery man took off a large case slung on his back and placed it on the ground. Revenant recognized a sniper case when he saw one. Ah, so the man wasn’t here for him, he just happened to be in the man’s way. The case quietly clicked open and the man started putting together his weapon. When the man fiddled with something in his hands as he peered into one of the warehouses across the way, he pounced. 

“Well, well, what do we have here?” he asked, pressing the man into the hard roof beneath them.

“Wha- Re- Red?!”

Revenant recognized that modulated voice. “Seung.” He looked down at the man. He was dressed in tight-fitting black clothes, his face was as covered as it always was, and hair pulled back into a ponytail. He eyed the half put together sniper. Looks like his favorite bassist was more interesting than he thought. “This is rather surprising.”

“That’s my line!” He shoved Revenant off him. “What are you doing here?”

“Thinking,” he looked down at the sniper in the other’s arms. “But I don’t need to do much of it to see what you’re doing.”

Seung mumbled under his breath. “You should get out of here. This doesn’t involve you.” He grabbed the remaining parts and finished putting together his weapon of choice. 

“You just double tapped me in the head,” he said. “I think this involves me now.”

He groaned. “I’m sorry about that.” He hesitated. “Uh, how did you survive that?” he asked, but it was odd, like he didn’t really care to hear the answer.

“I have a hard head.” He scrutinized Seung, he didn’t expect Seung to be a hitman like he once was. “I’m guessing the music is a side job then.”

“Oh, no, no. I’m not a killer for hire. This is a me thing.” He struggled find words when Revenant tilted his head slightly. “I mean I don’t normally do this. Just those thugs that hang around my place have gotten pretty bad, and I thought I should take care of it.” He scratched the back of his neck nervously.

“With murder.”

“Not like the cops will do anything.”

“Oh, I’m not judging you. I actually quite like this method.” He looked at the warehouse Seung was eyeing earlier. Plenty of rough looking individuals inside. “Let me assist you.”

“You really don’t have to.”

“I insist. Did you plan on killing all of them by yourself?”

“No, just the leaders. Not everyone has to die.” He sighed. “My plan didn’t account for a second person. You’ll make it more difficult for me if you stay.”

“Oh please, you won’t even need to do anything.”

“What? You want me to just,” he gestured vaguely to the warehouse, “send you in like an attack dog? I won’t do that. I have a plan for me to deal with them with this,” he raised his sniper, “You should just leave, Red.”

“That doesn’t sound like a very well thought out plan.”

“I have contingencies, you just don’t need to know what those are.”

“You won’t need a plan with me,” Revenant stood. He liked Seung. One of the few humans he could say that about. He would do him this one favor, then he’d go after Crypto. He grabbed Seung’s silenced pistol and put it in the waistband of his pants. “I’ll go introduce myself.” He jumped from the roof.

“No! Red!” he hissed.

Revenant didn’t bother to stop. He had to hold back from killing one or two people before but now he had an excuse to murder a whole warehouse. This was going to be fun.

Before anyone could even register his existence, he pulled out the pistol and shot. Two bullets, two dead. People yelled in his direction. Probably something typical like ‘who the fuck?’ and ‘kill him.’ They grabbed pipes and bats trying to melee him. Well wasn’t that cute. He grabbed a bat coming down on his head and bent it in his fist, pulling it out of the man’s grasp and whacking him with the handle. He flipped it in the air, gripping it properly and taking a swing at another man with the crinkled metal, blood spurting out of the wound.

Others seemed to get that he meant business and shot back, seemingly uncaring of their close-range counterparts. Good, it wouldn’t be any fun if they made it too easy.

It wasn’t hard to clean up the ground floor of the warehouse. Not the usual veteran security services he was used to with all his high-profile hits. He ran out of ammo sooner than he thought, and when he reached into his pocket and found none, he cursed himself for rushing. He should have gotten more from Seung before jumping off the roof.

But it didn’t matter. His hand slid into a man’s chest and pulled out his heart. He relished the way it felt when he squeezed. It only lasted a second before a shot jostled his shoulder. He sighed and dropped the heart, before advancing on the man holding the offending pistol.

A man from the second-floor catwalk started to rain bullets down on him with an assault rifle. He took cover behind a truck, disarming the man hiding behind it, literally. He ripped the pistol out from the limp arm’s grasp, firing back at the man on the second story. The man fell over the railing after the third bullet. A distinct shot came from outside the warehouse. Even with a silencer on, a sniper was loud. A man fell dead nearly right on top of him. He hadn’t seen the shooter standing right above him.

He followed the trail the bullet came from and just barely spotted a dark lump behind one of the containers outside the warehouse looking down the sight of his sniper. Seung. How nice of him to join the fun. 

Revenant focused more on the people in front of him rather than checking all the angles. As the blood bath progressed, he looked over his shoulder less and less. Seung seemed to be quite adept with that sniper. Perhaps the man should look for employment in the Apex Games, might make quite the legend. And he wouldn’t have to live in that run-down apartment.

For a second during the fight, he thought he heard the oh-so-familiar sound of Crypto’s drone buzzing through the air. Maybe it was just his wires on high, it was gone so quickly. Perhaps just his imagination.

“Their boss is in the office on the second floor! A car is pulling up to get him!” Seung called out. “The door is rigged! Go through the window!”

Revenant jumped up to the second floor and slipped out a window and crawled over to what appeared to be the office and was vindicated when a man opened the window to be met with his foot.

“Running?” Revenant chuckled. “No one likes a coward.”

“Fuck!” the man cursed, holding his nose. “I’ll pay you triple whatever they’re paying you!”

“You got it all wrong,” Revenant said, crouching next to him. “I’m doing this for fun.” He let the man scream and beg for another minute, before silencing him by tearing his head off. He would have loved to sit in it for a little bit longer, but there were more people to kill.

When he got back on the catwalk, he watched quietly as Seung hit a man with the butt of his rifle before turning it back around and shooting him point blank in the face. Oh, wasn’t that a pretty sight. Seung snapped to look up when he noticed eyes on him. He visibly relaxed when he saw Revenant. “You got him?”

“Foolish question.”

Seung raised his gun again at Revenant. There was a second of panic where he thought the bassist would shoot to kill him, to silence all witnesses, even one that aided in the act. Then another second of disappointment, he would hate to kill the man. He quite liked him, especially after tonight.

Seung pulled the trigger to fire at a man attempting to sneak up behind Revenant.

Revenant turned to look at the dead man then back at Seung, who gave him a lopsided smug look. “Did I spook you, P- Red?”

He scoffed. “Hardly.”

Seung waved for him to follow, leaving the light of the warehouse. He went into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He scribbled something out. “That’s the last of them,” he said.

“Surely that wasn’t all of their members,” Revenant said, itching for more.

“All the ones that matter,” he said. “I’ve been working through the lieutenants all afternoon. He was the last. The stragglers will try to regroup, reform, but without proper leadership, the gang will dissolve.” He took back his silenced pistol from Revenant, flipping the safety back on. “Looks like they won’t have time to come after my landlords anymore.”

Seung had effectively destroyed a small gang in less than 24 hours for such a useless reason; just move out of that shithole. He dismantled a gang like it was an annoyance and not a whole undertaking. And he looked at home with a gun in his hands. Well, quite frankly, it was hot. He wasn’t sure if he loved Seung, but by the stars he’d love to bend him over one of these trucks and fuck him right now. 

If Crypto had a problem with that, he shouldn’t have left him.

“What are you staring at? Never linger at the scene of a crime,” Seung said, walking away from him.

If he hadn’t been so busy staring at that ass, he would have noticed the man charging Seung in a pitiful attempt at payback for all the blood they spilt. Seung fell onto his knees when the bat hit him in the face.

Before the man could even try to attack Revenant, he had a metal hand through his chest. Revenant crouched down next to Seung. Shattered pieces of his face mask, his ventilator, laid on the ground along with drops of blood. He grabbed his shoulder to turn him around to see how bad the damage was.

But Seung threw him off. “DON’T TOUCH ME!”

The cry was still slightly modulated, but a familiar voice rang out through it. Seung must have noticed it too because a hand flew up to cover his mouth. Wide eyed, he turned slowly to look at Revenant.

Revenant recognized that voice. He ripped the broken modulator off Seung’s face and-

Seung- No- Crypto must have seen that recognition on his face. “Please, don’t- don’t be mad,” he pleaded.

Mad? Revenant was feeling a lot of things; thrilled, frantic, confused, upset, baffled, but mad? He hadn’t even registered his anger until Crypto mentioned it. And now that he did, he slammed Crypto’s head against the pavement.

Revenant laughed. And laughed and laughed. Of course. Of course Seung was Crypto. Who else would it be? Who else could confuse him like that? Who else could make him feel emotions like that? Only Crypto. There was only ever Crypto. “I should have known,” he said lowly, letting the timber in his voice reverberate in Crypto’s chest. “Only you could have done this to me.” He squeezed his hands around that thin neck.

“Revenant, please,” he wheezed. “I wanted to tell you.”

“Don’t!” he hissed, his grip tightened. “Don’t lie to me!” Crypto sent him on a wild goose chase, planned on having him leave the country, all while right under his nose. He had every opportunity to tell him, to be with him, and he chose not to.

His hands squeezed tighter. Crypto clawed at them. “Ppalgan, please.”

That pained face, his pleads, Revenant felt nothing. Normally he’d relish in them, but not here. Not now.

This was different from running away from the Syndicate. Crypto had him right there and chose not to tell him. He would have left the Games for him. He would have killed everyone in the Syndicate for him. He would have done anything for him. All he had to do was ask. But Crypto didn’t want him.

Mouth open as Crypto tried to take in any sort of air. Drool was running down the side of his mouth and tears formed in his eyes.

Crypto had been toying with him. Stringing him along for nearly two months now. He probably laughed at him last night. Revenant coming into his home and not realizing the truth. Opening up to some stranger about a lost lover, about him, and sat there and said nothing. Crypto saw him at his lowest and let him lay there.

Crypto’s eyes rolled back and hands went slack, falling to his side.

But none of that mattered anymore.

Crypto was his. Whether he wanted to be or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also ACAB.


	12. Chapter 12

Tae Joon woke up slowly. He groaned. His head and neck hurt. He tried swallowing to get rid of some of the dryness in his throat. He had a short coughing fit. As his body tried to curl in on itself, he noticed the restraint on his arms, he couldn’t move them. He tugged at the restraints. He had been bound by his forearms.

It all came back to him. What happened last night. Revenant found him out and got violent. He sat up quickly. Too quickly. A wave a nausea hit him, sending him back onto the bed beneath him. He groaned into the pillow. He closed his eyes and hoped that the world would stop spinning.

He tentatively opened his eyes. When he looked up, Revenant was standing there watching him. “You shouldn’t do that,” he said hauntingly. “Took quite the tumble last night.”

His hair was a mess. The strands of hair sticking to his face was annoying, but his hands couldn’t come up to sweep them away. “P-” Tae Joon’s voice was hoarse, raspy. “Ppalgan-”

“Don’t.”

Breathing scratched his throat. “Water.” Revenant grabbed a cup of water from the sink, fit with a straw. He drank slowly and pulled back when he had enough. “Revenant, please-”

“Shut up.” There was a distance in his posture. And Tae Joon feared that if he reached out, Revenant would disappear. “You ran. I caught you. I choose how this ends.”

Revenant was going to kill him. He was that pissed. Tae Joon wasn’t surprised. He was always possessive. And for Tae Joon to leave him; he must have deemed it a crime worthy of death. Revenant grabbed his chin and forced him to look at those haunting orange eyes.

Tae Joon hissed at the pain. It certainly didn’t help his aching head. He shut his eyes due to the pain.

Revenant pried one open, the one with the fake eye. “You would deny me this joy too.” He pressed his fingers against it, threatening to pop it out. “You’ve denied me far too much. No more.”

“Revenant-”

A slap jerked his head to the side. Jostling his head and returning the dizziness to the back of his eyes. That was not good. “I told you to be quiet,” Revenant said, cold. “I won’t listen to your lies anymore.”

Tae Joon shut his eyes, trying to will the nausea building in the base of his head to go away.

Revenant grabbed his hair right by his scalp and yanked. “Look at me.”

Tae Joon opened his eyes and stared up at a phone camera. Revenant maneuvered his head to focus on his real eye. A flash. Tae Joon was thrown back on the bed. By the time he regained his bearings he watched Revenant stalking off through an unmarked door.

Tae Joon laid there for a minute, letting his head stop spinning before opening his eyes again. He tested the restraints on his arms. It didn’t budge. He didn’t know what he expected. Revenant wouldn’t allow sloppy work.

He looked around the room. It was quite big for a room. Then he noticed the kitchen in one of the corners, a studio? But the walls looked like gray concrete and there were no windows, a basement then. There were three doors. One which Revenant went through. One of them had to be the bathroom. And the other likely a bedroom. Then why was he out here?

There were no clocks on the wall. No windows to see if it was day or night. How long has he been here? When was Revenant coming back? He would have liked another sip of water. It sat there on the nightstand tauntingly. His stomach ached, he was hungry too.

At least the bed was soft. Surprisingly so considering he was Revenant’s prisoner. The pillow was like a cloud. Maybe Revenant just wanted to make him comfortable before he executed him. A parting favor for a past affection. Past. He didn’t want it to be in the past.

He closed his eyes and let the airy feeling take him back to unconsciousness.

He stood on stage, playing the bass with Zach, Robin, and Bree. And Revenant there in the crowd watching. Mila was there next to him, eating the greasy fries the bar owner served when he went on break.

He was sitting next to them. They were all talking to each other. He didn’t know what of, only that Revenant was being snarky, Mila was teasing them, and he- he sat there and watched quietly, smiling, only interjecting every once in a while. He was happy.

They were in his apartment, the one from before Mila was taken, watching a movie. He and Mila pointed at the screen in disgusted confusion over a plot hole. Revenant made no big gestures like they did, but instead inputted his snide remarks over the lazy writing. Mystik stood in the kitchen shaking her head affectionately. He was laughing.

Then the everything turned off. He couldn’t see anything. Even though Revenant and Mila was right next to him. The TV turned back on, the blue light of the screen. He was back in his apartment, the tiny one that could have easily been mistaken for a broom closet. Curtains drawn. He stood at his desk in front of an empty green monitor. A hollowness in his chest. He was alone. There was no sound. Not even the distant sounds of cars or chatter. Nothing. He was alone. And he always would be.

He woke up slowly. He breathed deeply. There was a slight dip in the bed and just the faintest brush of hair from his face. It was sweet, familiar. He exhaled. It was comforting.

Revenant tightened a grip on his head. “I know you’re awake,” he seethed. He was angry and he was right to be, but that anger was aimed at the wrong person.

Tae Joon looked up at Revenant. “Ppalgan.”

“Don’t call me that.”

Tae Joon shut his eyes, only for a second or two before opening them again. Revenant wanted to throw away what they were, throw away the pet names, what he called Revenant the first time they “ate” together in the middle of the night at the canteen. He wanted to throw away the months they were together.

Tae Joon asked, “Where are we?”

“Somewhere you can never run from me again.”

So, Revenant didn’t plan on killing him. He didn’t know if he should be relieved or scared.

Revenant let him go and turned back around, refusing to look at him. He was angry but there was a sadness underlying it all. Tae Joon felt terrible because of it. He did this. He did this to Revenant. The normally unflappable simulacrum tortured by the disappearance of one human. Of his human.

“Water,” Tae Joon requested.

Revenant grabbed the cup from the nightstand and adjusted the straw so it was right by Tae Joon’s mouth. 

He took small sips. He didn’t want to upset his stomach. “How long have we been here?”

“Twenty seven hours.”

“Oh.” That long? No wonder he was getting hunger pangs. “Food?”

Revenant got up and went to the kitchen to grab a bag sitting on the counter. He came back to the bed and pulled out a takeout box.

“Can you untie me so I can eat?”

“No.”

Tae Joon sighed as Revenant opened the box and grabbed a spoon. It looked to be a standard fried rice. Made sense. If Revenant didn’t plan on letting him feed himself, it would be best to pick a food that was easy to spoon feed. Revenant sat him up, fluffing pillows for his back.

Revenant fed him in silence, going at Tae Joon’s pace. The food was good. It was a salmon fried rice. There weren’t any large or many chunks of salmon, but every bite emanated it, maybe they cooked it in salmon oil. Despite Revenant’s inability to eat, he had good tastes.

The process of being hand fed was intimate, a display of affection and vulnerability very little else could compare to. He could have pretended he was sick and Revenant was tending to him, if it weren’t for the strain on his arms.

Was Revenant trying to Stockholm him? Maybe, but honestly, it was unnecessary. He still wanted to be with Revenant. Even after getting his head slammed into the concrete and choked out, he wanted to be with him. He just had to make Revenant see that.

“It’s good,” Tae Joon said.

Revenant grunted.

“Where did you get it?”

“Want me to tell you so you can narrow down where you are? No.”

He didn’t even realize that was a possibility. He hadn’t thought of leaving. But Revenant thought he wanted to. He didn’t. His head ached. “Do I have a concussion?” he asked.

“Maybe. So don’t move your head too much.”

“Can you untie my arms?”

“No.”

“Even if I wanted to, I can’t take you in a fight. Especially not now.”

Revenant huffed and leant him forward a bit to cut the binds on his arms. Tae Joon groaned as he brought his arms forward and let them go limp at his sides. The chain on his leg rattled as he brought his knee up.

“Thank you.”

Revenant grunted. He continued to let Revenant feed him, despite his hands now being free. He flexed his hands, trying to encourage blood flow into them. Tae Joon took another two bites before laying a hand on Revenant’s wrist. “I’m full.” He hadn’t even eaten half of it.

Revenant got up to put the leftovers in the fridge.

Tae Joon watched him. It was something so domestic. If it weren’t for the concrete walls, lack of windows, and the chain around his ankle. He could imagine this as a happy ending. But it wasn’t.

“Where do we go from here?” Tae Joon asked.

Revenant stared at his hands wrapped around the fridge handle. “There is no we. Not anymore.” He stalked out of the room.

Tae Joon was left to figure out what he should do next.


	13. Chapter 13

The last engineer was kicked out of his and Crypto’s new residence. Syndicate trash. They had just finished installing the respawn device. Now, if he decided to have some “fun” with Crypto, the man would respawn in the spare room downstairs as good as new.

The Syndicate’s board gave him his “prize” once he sent over that picture of Crypto’s eye. The optical scan matched the one in the Game’s database. When Revenant… insisted that he caught Crypto, the board didn’t want to deal with arguing him or the repercussions that might have brought. Mila had been vocal about it, wanting more evidence, but if the girl listened to anyone, it was her bosses. And they told her to shut up about it.

Revenant walked down the stairs and opened the door to see Crypto sat at the small table by the old TV. He was watching some cartoon about anthropomorphic animals and their school life. He hardly glanced at Revenant and kept picking at the salad in front of him. The man was fidgety, Revenant never noticed before, but that was probably because Crypto was always doing something with his hands; tinkering with his drone, on his computer, or eating. Crypto was never unoccupied before and now… now he was stuck in here.

It had been two days since the night he discovered Crypto’s deceptions. Two days burning in his anger. Two days of Crypto meandering around the room. Two days of Crypto being silent. Of him sleeping more often than not. Of him being so… un-Crypto.

“Aren’t you bored?” Revenant asked.

Crypto raised a brow at him, like Revenant might be a bit of an idiot. He gestured around the room, the sparsely decorated room, with little in the way of entertainment.

“Do you have something to say?” he seethed. He hated passive aggressiveness more than anything else. Or really, he hated passivity. Just be aggressive.

“Last time I spoke out, you hit me knowing I already had a concussion.”

He had done that hadn’t he. But he was so furious. Crypto had lied to him had lied to him for weeks pretending to be Seung. “I won’t do that again,” he said.

Crypto huffed and crossed his arms. “Quite the abusive husband, aren’t you?”

“Wha- we’re not even married!”

“Really? Funny. You even got me a ring,” he put his foot on the table and gestured to the shackle around his ankle. It stretched from the bedpost, long enough to move around the room freely, or as freely as one could with a chain around their ankle.

“That’s not-” he growled in frustration.

“Do you want to take it off?” Crypto asked.

Crypto wanted to leave him. He would find a way to escape. He would leave him again. “No.”

“Hm. Abusive husband,” he said. Before Revenant could say anything about that, he added, “This is the part of the abuse where you apologize and gets me gifts.”

Cocky little- Even his prisoner, Crypto managed to get under his skin. “Fine. What do you want?”

“My PC, don’t forget my monitor, my bass, Salty, my clothes, and there’s a lock box in the back of my closet.”

“I’m not getting all of that.”

“If you do, I’ll give you something in return,” he said.

“What could you possibly give me?”

“Something personal.”

“More personal than having you here with me?”

“Maybe not, but you’ll appreciate it anyway.”

This was the Crypto he was used to. The one he wanted. Snarky little skinsuit that wormed under his metal plating. But something was still off. Those months made him soft. And that softness hurt him once. Revenant wanted to make sure that would never happen again.

“Pick one thing.”

“How about we make a deal? I’ll get you that reward, and if you like it, you go back and get me the rest of my stuff.”

“Fine.”

Crypto grinned. “Get the lock box then.” Revenant turned and stalked back up the stairs. “Have a safe trip, honey,” her said sarcastically.

Revenant slammed the door shut. He locked to door behind him and left the house. It was in a secluded part of Gaea, far from the bustling city. Which meant that even if Crypto escaped, he wouldn’t be free very long. He got in his car and inputted familiar coordinates.

He had one detour to take before picking up Crypto’s things. Time to rub it in that woman’s face.

He wondered if she was expecting him, or if she didn’t expect to ever see him again. The hotel was busy. A crowd of syndicate scum packing away their things into vans. There were all here to protect and act on the orders of one girl, so there weren’t much personnel, but all of them had to have a place to stay and proper equipment to carry out the girl’s orders.

Mila sat there on the stone stairs head resting on her knees, nestled on her arms. She jolted at his mechanical footsteps. Her eyes had bags and dark circles under them. All that work just to lose. This was the inevitable outcome.

“Wasn’t expecting you,” she said. “Would have thought you’d take your spoils and disappear.”

“Leave without seeing that despair on you face? Wouldn’t dream of it.”

She scoffed. “How is he?”

“More or less the same.”

“As I remember him?”

“Unlikely.”

“Well, it has been a while since I last saw him. Can I visit some time?”

“No.”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course, you don’t want me to. But ask Tae, maybe he’ll want to see me.”

“No.”

She scrutinized him. He didn’t think he made any odd movements, but the girl sneered at him and said, “He’s pissed at you. And you’re ignoring him.”

He glared back. “And? You going to do something about it?”

“What no honeymoon faze?” she snarled sarcastically.

“Why does- We’re not married!”

“You better be treating him right!” she snapped back.

“I’m treating him the way he deserves to be.”

Her face shifts to rage before she stifled it with pursed lips. “Why are you doing this to him?”

She was angry? He was the one that was pissed. “He ran from me, I’ll make sure that never happens again.”

“He ran because my team came after him,” she tried to say rationally, but she said it through her gritted teeth. “He wasn’t running away from you.”

“He lied to me. For weeks. Left me in the dark for weeks. He might as well have.”

“What are you even talking about?” she asked, aggravated and annoyed.

“That man that I asked you about, that was Crypto.”

Mila stared at him. Stared at him for a long time before busting a gut. He watched her, unimpressed, if her little giggle fit didn’t go away, he would. She wiped the tears from her eyes. “Oh my stars, I can’t fucking believe that.” She giggled again. “You fell in love with the same guy twice. I think that’s the universe telling you something.” She looked down at her hands and sighed. “You fell in love with Tae twice, do you really think he doesn’t feel the same?”

If he did, why didn’t Crypto tell him? Why did Crypto deceive him? Why did Crypto comfort him under the guise of Seung knowing full well Revenant was missing him? If he still had feelings for him, why did he tell him to get over him? It didn’t make any sense if he did, so he must not have.

“He wouldn’t have lied to me otherwise.”

“Lying and not telling the truth aren’t exactly the same,” she said. “Did you ask him why?”

“So I can listen to more lies?”

She sighed. “Have you considered that he was running from the Syndicate, and he found out you roll up looking for him _with_ the Syndicate?”

That didn’t matter. Crypto knew that he was only using them to find him. Didn’t he? He had to. Likely the smartest man on this planet, he had to have known. He had been wrapped around that little hacker’s finger. So enamored with the man that he’d do anything for him. If he didn’t know- A man that smart couldn’t be that dumb. And now he would do anything to keep him. “He knew.”

“Did you ask him about it?”

Like when he choked the air out of the man’s lungs the night he found out? Or like when he hit him for trying to speak the other night? “No.”

“Well do it,” she said. She rubbed the tiredness from her eyes. “Do you want to talk to him?”

A part of him wanted to back to what they were. Even if when it was only Crypto speaking to him, there was never that harsh bite to his words that the man had earlier. He wanted those quiet moments between them that was filled with softness, with intimacy. Now the air that surrounded them was tense, it felt suffocating. Was that what Crypto felt when he choked him? The feeling of their relationship spoiling.

No. He didn’t want to talk to Crypto. He threw away that softness. It ruined him. It weakened him. But here he was craving it. He wanted that softness. Talking? He didn’t care about that. He just wanted Crypto to make him feel soft. He just wanted Crypto to make him feel human again. And Revenant talking was never much a part of that.

“You’re both adults, just talk,” Mila said. “Communication is key to any relationship.”

He growled. She wasn’t wrong. But he didn’t like admitting she was right.

“Right. You’re not the talkative type,” she rolled her eyes. “Just try. He cares a lot about you. You just- you just have to open yourself to see it.”

Revenant huffed. “Where’s the Syndicate going to cage you up next?”

She gave him a lopsided smirk. “Gonna miss me?” Revenant glared at her. She raised her hands in mock surrender. “Don’t know. Give me your address, maybe I’ll write.”

“Nice try,” he said.

She shrugged and got up. “It’s fine, if Tae wants to… talk to me again, he’ll find me.” She brushed the dirt off her pants. “If you could do me a favor, tell him I’m sorry.” She looked up at Revenant. “I’m telling you I’m sorry too. I came looking for him and he left. Whatever peace you had at the Games, I disrupted that.” She brushed a stray hair behind her ear. “But I didn’t ruin it. Talk to him. Get your answers. You’ll see that your worries were unfound.”

He scoffed. “Your advice doesn’t mean anything.” But why did it make him feel… lighter to hear?

She snorted. “If there’s any advice I want you to take from me, don’t be so prideful.” Revenant could see the family resemblance. “Also don’t be such a bitch.”

He rolled his eyes. “This is goodbye, girl. Next time I see you, it might just be to kill you.”

“Then let’s hope you never do.”

He left her there on the stairs of the hotel she, and technically him as well, had been staying at for over a month. He had an errand to run.

Seung’s or Crypto’s apartment wasn’t that far. A thirty-minute trip along rooftops. When he got there, he opted to go in through the fire escape.

The apartment felt colder than he remembered. Strange. Temperature wasn’t supposed to matter to him. He remembered Seung, Crypto, standing back and making room for him. Welcoming him into the tiny apartment. He looked at the desk. The little squishy nessie was still sat on one corner of the desk. On the other side, Salty swam around the slightly murky looking bowl. He unscrewed the canister by the bowl and dropped a few pellets inside. The goldfish immediately went to the surface to scoop it up.

The bass in the corner sat on the stand next to the amp. The computer under the desk was off. No RGB lighting it up. Inactive. Dead. Ah, that was why the apartment felt so cold. Seung, Crypto, neither were here. No, Crypto was now locked away in a basement far from here. But that basement didn’t feel any warmer than here.

The lock box in the back of the closet. That was what he was here for. He opened the closest and stopped. That red. It was the only deep red in the closet. It hung delicately over the other scarves. It was his head wrap. The one Crypto disappeared in. Revenant held it in his hands. He looked over to the futon, neatly folded into the corner. He thought of the other night, of Seung comforting him, of Crypto comforting him. Of Crypto telling him to move on, not because he no longer cared, but because it wasn’t healthy for Revenant to cling, to be so dependent. He thought of Crypto telling him to stay over so he wouldn’t be alone when he was at his lowest.

He knelt, leaning against the wall and sighed.

Where did it all go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mila, the voice of reason here.


	14. Chapter 14

Tae Joon exhaled as he sat up. There was a burn in his core. He had been doing some exercises. There was some local news on the TV at the moment, something he didn’t care to pay attention to but wouldn’t mind as background noise.

Sweat dripped from his brow. He hated sweating. But he couldn’t just sit around and do nothing all day. He hated it before but especially now. His extensions stuck to his back and it was annoying, and he would have to wash them later. Maybe he should just get it cut now that his cover was blown. But, he actually quite liked how he looked with long hair.

He wondered if his ploy to annoy Revenant with the silent treatment worked. He had hoped that that his ability to predict Revenant hadn’t been affected by the possessive rage that the simulacrum was going through.

But more than anything, he worried that things would never be the same. And how could they after everything that happened. They certainly couldn’t go back to the games. There were other things that they did together that they could still do. But Tae Joon’s concern was that Revenant only really became infatuated with him because of the Games.

What if Revenant chased Crypto so much because of their dynamic in the Games? What will happen when he realizes they can never go back to that? Was the thrill of the chase the thing that kept Revenant by him? What if Revenant lost interest in him once he could not provide? Will Crypto bore him? Will he leave him?

He let the sweat cool off his body. He wished Revenant installed an AC or something. He stood and walked over to the sink to get a glass of water. He needed to take a shower. The chain on his ankle jingled. He wanted to take it off; it was annoying to wash around it.

Where was Revenant? It was well into the night going by the time by the news anchor’s head. It shouldn’t have taken this long to go to his apartment and back.

He wasn’t worried; this was Revenant after all. He was almost sure that even a nuke wouldn’t be enough to fully kill him. But he knew that Revenant was still a man-made thing, and things made by man could not be immortal. What if-

Okay, so maybe he was a little worried.

Tae Joon went around the room looking through things. There wasn’t much. Never was. At least the fridge was properly stocked, enough for one, but not for two. Not anymore.

He opened the cabinet under the sink, he felt around the front ridge. It was still there. He found a paperclip in his initial search and hid it. He could use it to escape this chain with a little fenagling; difficult but not impossible.

He didn’t want to leave Revenant, but he had to plan for every eventuality. He looked at the clip under the light. And in this eventuality, Revenant might turn his back on him and never look back.

He put it back and closed the cabinet. Revenant was not prone to making mistakes. He must have rushed to bring this all together. To keep him captive.

He splashed water on his face. He let the water drip off him, hovering over the sink. He wasn’t content to be here, to be Revenant’s captive. If he were, he would have taken Mila up on her offer. He had much more he needed to do.

He had to convince Revenant to let him go. To let him work at least. But what if Revenant wouldn’t? What if he couldn’t? What if Revenant made a deal with the Syndicate?

He splashed more water on face, rubbing maybe a little too hard against his skin. He shut the faucet off and just hovered over the sink a little more. He used his hands to swipe away as much water as he could before he grabbed a paper towel to wipe the rest off.

Revenant quietly entered the room, slinking into the room almost like a guilty child. Tae Joon was a little surprised by that. Revenant has been bursting through that door every time, anger charging the push. Revenant’s eyes landed on Tae Joon and stayed there.

Ah, Tae Joon was lacking… clothes at the moment. He was fitted in only his boxer briefs. He didn’t have workout clothes. Hell, he only had one set of clothes with him. This wasn’t his fault that he was practically naked right now. Revenant should have gotten some clothes from his closet.

“Maybe I should have gotten some of your clothes,” Revenant said. He placed the lock box on the table. “You going to tell me what’s inside?”

“Later,” Tae Joon said. “What took you so long?”

“I got… lost.”

“Lost?” He raised a skeptical brow. “You didn’t have a GPS?”

“Not that kind of lost.”

Tae Joon took a step towards him. “Did you find your way?”

Revenant looked at him. His eyes glowed. They always did. But- but this felt different. It wasn’t its usual haunting or intimidating sort of feeling, it was- It was soft. It was a soft glow.

“Not yet,” Revenant said.

“Do you need help?”

Revenant walked up to him and slowly brought his hands up. Tae Joon did not flinch away. Despite the simulacrum’s past transgressions, he wasn’t afraid of him. Of his Ppalgan? Never.

Revenant held his cheeks, tilting him too look up. “Just stay with me.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” He smiled wiry. Not like he had much of a choice in that. The weight around his ankle reminded him of that. “Not unless you want me to.”

Revenant didn’t tighten his grip. He just kept staring down at him with that same soft glow.

Tae Joon brought his own hands up to cover Revenant’s. He let his eyes flutter closed. “I want to take a shower,” he said. Revenant lowered his hands. “Can you take the chain off?” he asked. “It gets in the way.”

“You’ll-”

“I won’t.” Tae Joon huffed. “If it’ll ease your worries, come in with me.”

Revenant’s eyes widened. “Okay.”

Tae Joon smiled and chuckled. “You going to come in like that?”

“You don’t want me to?”

He shrugged. “I don’t mind, but won’t the wet clothing get annoying?”

Revenant looked down at himself. “Most of it is water repellant.”

“The head wrap too?”

Revenant tentatively unwrapped it and placed it on the bed. It was strange to see him without it; all the exposed wires around his clavicle and neck was worrying. But Revenant wouldn’t have been such a dominant force in the Games if he malfunctioned in some simple water. Tae Joon sat on the bed and propped one leg up, the one with the chain around the ankle. Revenant knelt at the bed and took a key out of his pouch and unlocked it.

Tae Joon grabbed his hand and led him to the bathroom. It wasn’t tiny, enough room for at least two, unlike his apartment’s. He turned on the shower, letting the water heat up a bit while he took off his boxers.

He looked at Revenant who turned away when their eyes met. Was he embarrassed? How cute.

“Ppalgan,” he said, giving him a smile. “Look at me.”

He did. Keeping his eyes resolutely above the waist.

Tae Joon laughed. “You’ve seen me naked before.” But not like this, even he recognized that. Before, Revenant only saw him naked when they were having sex or when Crypto was teasing him, but never like this.

Tae Joon stepped under the spray, letting the water soak into his hair. At least Revenant had the foresight to get some shampoo and conditioner for him. Not as good of a quality as the ones in his apartment, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. He let the water run over him for a minute before moving to grab the shampoo bottle.

He turned to Revenant with a raised brow. “You coming in?”

“I don’t need to bathe.”

“Does the water bother you?”

“No.”

“Then come and help me.”

Revenant stepped into the shower behind him. He stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do with his hands. Well, Tae Joon had just the task for him.

He handed Revenant the shampoo bottle. “Can I leave this to you?”

“I don’t know to… shampoo.”

Tae Joon chuckled. “Of course not, you don’t have any hair.” He shut off the water and sat in the tub, he pulled Revenant to kneel behind him. “Put a good dollop on your hands,” he instructed. He heard the cap being popped behind him and shifted back so that he was comfortably within Revenant’s reach. “Rub it into the hair by my scalp.” He felt fingers tentatively brush against his hair before working the shampoo into his hair.

Tae Joon was concerned that hair would get tangled in Revenant’s joints, but so far it was going smoothly. It felt nice. Revenant thoroughly worked it into his scalp, pressing just right at the base of his neck, behind his ears, and at his temples.

Eventually he had to pat Revenant’s shin to get him to stop, otherwise they might be here all night. He stood to turn the shower back on and let water run over his head. He watched the soapy water pool at the drain. He used his hands to ease the water into his hair to get the soap out.

He poured some conditioner into his hands and worked it into his hair, everything from his neck down. Revenant watched him, still on the floor of the tub. Tae Joon knelt and handed him a loofa and bodywash. Revenant went to work, squirting a good bit onto the loofa as Tae Joon turned around again, sitting between his legs. He continued to work the conditioner into his hair.

Revenant scrubbed his back with the loofa while his other hand traveled along his back, exploring the expanse of his skin. Moving onto his shoulders, and arms, which Tae Joon raised his arms up to provide easier access. He even trailed down his wrist to his hands, gently cleaning in between each finger.

Tae Joon relaxed his muscled, letting Revenant move him as he pleased. Whenever the soap on the loofa thinned out too much, Revenant added more soap. It didn’t help that the water was still running over Tae Joon’s front, and Revenant was taking his sweet time.

Tae Joon liked it. It was a vulnerability he never experienced before, and Revenant was replying in kind with a gentleness he never gave before.

Tae Joon leaned back against Revenant as he scrubbed his chest and abdomen. The simulacrum hunching over him as he worked. Revenant was more than a head taller than him and could easily see over his head with his height. His other hand trailed down his side, squeezing and pressing as it went. His fingers lingered over the few scars he had as the other went lower.

Tae Joon’s cock was getting stiff, and that didn’t escape Revenant’s notice. He circled his fingers around it and only got one stroke in before Tae Joon stopped him. “Leave it,” he said quietly, just over the sound of the water.

“But-”

“That’s not important right now,” he said. He moved Revenant’s hand to his thighs. “Go on.”

And he did. Revenant scrubbed the top of his thighs before moving to the back of his knee, bending it so he had easy access to the back of his thighs. He kept pulling Tae Joon’s knee to his chest so he could reach his shin and ankle. The released it slowly before moving onto the other leg.

Tae Joon sighed in satisfaction. He ran a hand through his hair and rinsing out any stray strands and the conditioner. He grabbed the bottle of body soap and lathered his hands up to clean his more delicate parts. Revenant watched him. The grip on his leg tightened. He was still a little stiff, it would go away soon enough.

Tae Joon gathered some more soap to wash his hands. He stood, letting the water wash over his front before turning around. “Step out,” he said. “I’ll be out soon.” Revenant stood too, water dripping over his metal plating. “Do you need help getting dry?”

“No,” he grabbed a towel. “Do you?”

“Only if you want to.”

And Revenant must have because he lifted Tae Joon up onto the sink’s counter and draped a towel over his head and grabbed another. Tae Joon gently patted his hair dry as Revenant dragged the towel over his body. He knelt down to dry his legs and feet. He pressed his forehead to his ankle.

“Don’t leave me.”

“I won’t.” He brushed his other foot against Revenant’s side. “The only way I would leave you again is if they take me from you.”

Revenant growled lowly. “They won’t.” He looked up at Tae Joon. “I won’t let them.”

“Good,” he got to his feet and placed a hand on Revenant’s cheek. Revenant slowly stood to his full height, chasing Tae Joon’s fingers as they slowly slipped down his face until he was face plate met Tae Joon’s lips. His hands settled on the other’s hips, pulling him closer. Tae Joon pulled back and smiled. “Come, let me show you your gift.”

Revenant followed him out to the room and to the table where the lockbox sat. He pressed his finger against the scanner and punched in a code. Inside was his drone and the cube to control it. He set that aside on the table. Next was the hard drive he stored all his data from the Games in, including pictures and videos. And lastly, his eye, the one the twins cut out from its socket and replaced with this new one. It was in a clear tube with metal ends, both of which could act as a stand. He turned to Revenant and handed it to him.

“What is this?” Revenant asked.

“Does it look familiar?” he asked teasingly.

“It-” He looked up and paused. Tae Joon smirked and pushed his hair back, out of his eyes. Revenant looked absolutely mesmerized. “It’s-” He held Tae Joon’s face with one hand and the eye in the other. “It’s yours?”

Tae Joon pulled him down for a kiss. It was sweet, chaste. “Yours now,” he said.

Revenant pulled him back for another kiss. “I don’t understand you.”

“What don’t you understand?”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because I thought you would like it.”

“No!” Revenant snapped. “That’s not what I meant.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can understand why you left, but why did you stay away? Why didn’t you come find me?”

Tae Joon looked away, ashamed. “I was scared you’d chose them over me,” he whispered. “I was scared you preferred the Games over me.” He hesitated. “You seemed so pleased with the Games and I didn’t want to make you choose.”

“I would have chosen you,” his grip around Tae Joon’s waist tightened.

“I know, but came to this planet with _them_ , and you know how paranoid I am; I had to make sure you weren’t.”

“That’s why you sent me on a wild goose chase?”

He smiled sheepishly. “Sorry about that. I was going to wait to see who would have arrived at the final point, you or them or you and them.”

“They were a means to an end. I came here for you and only you.”

Tae Joon gently placed his forehead on Revenant’s chassis. “I didn’t want to leave you. I thought- I thought about staying with you at the Games. I wanted to stay with you.” Revenant held Tae Joon close. “But I couldn’t just stay there with all they did to me, with all they do to the people of the Outlands, I can’t sit idly by.”

“So much passion for something so weak.”

“It is because I am so weak that I must be passionate, for myself, for others weak like me.”

“I don’t care about any of that. Weak or strong, all skinsuits are the same to me.” He caressed Tae Joon’s cheek before pressing a kiss against his lips. “But you- you’re the only thing I care about. So stay with me. Just stay with me.”

Tae Joon gripped Revenant’s back. “As long as you stay with me.”

“I will,” Revenant promised. “I will. I will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They finally talked and it solved everything. 🌈
> 
> Please know that fixing an abusive relationship is not like this at all and would be best if you can get out of it.


	15. Chapter 15

Tae Joon sat at the machine the Syndicate engineers installed. It was complicated to say the least. But of course, bringing the dead back to life was a complicated process. Well, it wasn’t technically bringing the dead back to life. The mechanism could be many things; teleportation, rebuilding the individual on a molecular level, maybe even linking the individual to a clone who is then dropped.

“That's quite the face you're making. You need to take a shit?” Revenant said.

Tae Joon sighed. “No, this is just a lot.”

Revenant stood next to his hunched form. He had gone back to Crypto’s apartment and gotten his things. Ever since, Crypto had been running around setting up a temporary base of operations. He also set about figuring out how the respawn technology worked. Crypto soon was spending his days and night pouring over the technology or wiggling his way into the Syndicate’s systems.

Tae Joon looked up at him. “Did you look at what I sent?” he asked.

“I don’t like them.”

Tae Joon sighed. They were attempting to figure out what rebellion to join. They had been going back and forth on which one was a good fit for them. Honestly, Tae Joon was just glad that Revenant was okay with joining one at all. Although in a very Revenant like fashion, insisted they could take the Syndicate on with just them. But Tae Joon was a realist. He knew they couldn’t.

Well, with the respawn technology now in their hands, both the Syndicate’s and Revenant’s maybe they could.

If Tae Joon could just reverse engineer this technology, they could be an unstoppable force. He could harness the power for the rebellion and against the Syndicate. Such technology has yet to be used in an actual war scenario, but if they did decide to whip it out to stop out a rebellion, he would be able to hack into such technology and shut it down.

But first they had to figure out what resources such a thing needed, how it worked. He was no engineer, he knew basics, yes, but to this scale? No. The thing that he would be able to handle was the coding. How did each part speak to each other? How did they work together? This would not be an easy process, not even with his expertise.

“Then your suggestion?” Tae Joon asked Revenant.

“Start your own group,” he said.

Revenant deemed this the best course of action. Starting their own rebellion ensured that it would be trustworthy and get shit done. They would be in charge of their own fate, not some stranger. Crypto believed it would be too much trouble. Crypto wasn’t up for the work that was involved with managing people especially in a scenario where they could all be killed if they were found out.

“You know how I feel about that,” Tae Joon said.

“I think you’re just being lazy,” Revenant said. “You’re the smartest person on this planet, you would get the best results.”

“Being smart doesn’t make you a leader.”

“But just because someone is a leader doesn’t mean they’re smart.” Revenant crossed his arms. “You want to put your life in an idiot’s hands?”

“Which is why we have to be careful with who we provide out aide to.”

“Just start your own.”

“Ppalgan-”

“Start one. You can vet everyone. Choose your leader and you can just be the founder. You’ll have more leeway in operations that way too.”

“New leaders could oust me.”

“Not with me by your side.”

Tae Joon sighed. Revenant wasn’t wrong… The simulacrum rarely was. He went back to focusing on the screen in front of him. “I’ll think about it.”

Revenant grabbed his chin and made him meet his eyes. “I won’t listen to any one but you.”

“So even if we do agree on a group, you won’t obey orders?”

“Have I ever?”

“I’m not much better at you in that regard.”

Tae Joon leaned back on his hands. It would be difficult. They would have to relocate, recruit, all while still working. It was a lot of money and resources to expend. Not that money would be an issue for them. Tae Joon could easily move money around for them. But time was not a currency he had a lot of.

He might not be able to take down the Syndicate in his lifetime. They were so deeply ingrained in the Outlands that time just simply was not on his side. If he started a rebellion, they could finish what he could not. But he would have to do it carefully, so that it wouldn’t spiral out of his control.

He couldn’t believe he was actually considering this.

He didn’t expect this sort of thing to happen to him. He just wanted justice for his sister. And now- now everything has gone to shit. But at least he had Revenant, his Ppalgan. A murderous simulacrum. His life was quite strange.

Revenant watched him and pulled him onto his feet. “Have you eaten lunch yet?” He didn’t really need to ask. He knew the answer.

Crypto sheepishly looked away. “No.”

Of course not. “Go eat.”

Revenant sat at the table going through the data Crypto gave him. As much as he’d like to go and slaughter all the people on this list, Crypto told him to hold off on it until they move out.

He heard the stove in the kitchen turn on. They had decided to stay on Gaea and make it seem like they took off to another planet. Either option didn’t matter to him, as long as he had Crypto. Crypto was thinking about fashioning a warehouse to be their home. It was fitting, at least for them. A white picket fence did not feel… right for them. Crypto was already looking into some buildings to buy, of course under a pseudonym.

Revenant was also considering some upgrades to his hardware. But he was also reluctant to. He was so used to what he had now and he worked damned efficiently, but what if the new gear threw him off. What if the unfamiliarity with new parts caused him to fail during a mission? That would be unacceptable.

Crypto had recommended him a set of doctors. Said they were strange siblings but did good work. Revenant was tempted to kill them just because they cut out Crypto’s eye. He would have liked that privilege and they took it from him. He stared at the eye on the counter. Where to keep it?

Crypto sat down in front of him with two bowls of noodles, one much smaller than the other. He set the smaller one in front of Revenant. Japchae, Crypto’s favorite lazy food. He was handed a pair of chopsticks.

Tae Joon mixed his food first, getting the chili oil on all the noodles. The sooner he finished eating the sooner he could return to his work. Revenant watched him, picking up his own chopsticks and picked at his food. Once Tae Joon took a bite, Revenant lifted some noodles and deposited it into his bowl. He would have eaten Revenant’s bowl anyway, but this- this kind of was like they were eating together. It made him smile.

“I’m glad you still know how to use those,” Tae Joon said.

“Like I can forget.” He scoffed.

The simulacrum’s memory bank was indeed large and had clear memories from years ago if Revenant bothered to dig through them. But… still, he was just glad Revenant didn’t delete the memory out of sheer anger.

He hadn’t realized how hungry he was until he was taking his second bite. He had to consciously tell himself to take it easy, otherwise he might choke on his food.

“Do you want me to get upgrades?” Revenant asked.

Tae Joon shrugged. He swallowed his food before speaking. “I think that choice should be left to you.”

“But what do you think of it?”

“Certain upgrades might have their uses during missions.” Tae Joon looked him in the eyes before going further. “But if you’re referring to your appearance, it doesn’t matter much to me.”

“And if I fail missions because of them?”

“We have some downtime now, you could use it to get used to your new parts.”

“And if I never do?”

Tae Joon raised a brow. “Doubting yourself? That’s not like you, Ppalgan.” He chuckled. “Most operations won’t solely rely on you and if you don’t feel comfortable, I can just sideline you until you are.”

“And you don’t want me to change up my look?”

He snorted. “You can change your look all you want, you’ll still always be the same salty man on the inside.” Revenant huffed. He grinned. “But I wouldn’t mind, especially if it gave me more to hold onto.”

Revenant stared at him deadpanned. “Of course that’s all you have to add.”

“What? Don’t want me comfortable when I ride you?”

He growled. “I’ll consider it.”

Tae Joon chuckled. “Too easy, Ppalgan.” He sighed. “I doubt myself too,” he said. “That I might fail any rebellion I join, that I’ll fail my own if I start one.” He looked up at Revenant. “I don’t trust myself,” he said quietly. “But I trust you. I trust what you can do.” He moved his left hand, so his fingers mingled with Revenant’s on the table. “I trust what I can do when you’re there. I trust in us.”

Revenant held onto his hand, letting his thumb run over Tae Joon’s knuckles.

Tae Joon smiled softly at the gesture. “When you doubt yourself, trust in me.”

Revenant brought his hand up to his lips, placing a delicate kiss to ring finger. “I will.”

“Ppalgan.”

“Yes?”

Tae Joon leaned back and tilted his head challengingly at Revenant. “Let's go on a rampage, Ja-gi.”

Revenant chuckled, deep and menacing. He looked up from Crypto’s eyes, a dangerous glint to them. “I knew I fell in love with you for a reason.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations (just in case anyone needs it):  
> Ppalgan: Red  
> Ja-gi: My love or honey
> 
> This is it! Last chapter of this series, technically. I'll make a short epilogue, but that's about it. I hope you enjoyed the journey! I have a few one shots in mind for these two so look forward to that. 
> 
> Just a teaser for what they are:  
> HumanHitman!Revenant / Hacker!Crypto  
> UnholyBeast!Revenanat / Researcher!Crypto  
> Revenant / Crypto inspired by the in-game quest
> 
> :3c


	16. Epilogue

Mila stood from her desk and wandered over to the large window that stretched from floor to ceiling. She never expected to have an office job, especially not one this… cushy. She stared down at the smaller buildings beneath the Syndicate’s. Now the head of their cyber security, she lived a comfortable life, happily married. She was able to provide Mystik with a comfortable life as well.

Over the years she had been able to steadily climb up the Syndicate’s ladder. It helped that it seemed her darling brother and his murderbot eliminated most of her competition. That was not to say that she didn’t earn her spot here. They just… accelerated her promotion.

The boys made quite the name for themselves; striking fear into even the highest Syndicate executives. She was not concerned. Not because she though they wouldn’t kill her if she got in their way, but because she wasn’t concerned with dying. Not anymore. Her mother would be well taken care of in the final years of her life and Tae was doing well enough (he sometimes sent heavily encrypted photos or physical postcards to her private address). She didn’t think Tae would kill her though, he was a softy. Revenant on the other hand, he just might for the fun of it.

The Syndicate was flailing to deal with them. They wanted her advice on it, but she simply told them that she couldn’t figure out the new code her brother developed. And that was true for the most part. Unlike most of her coworkers, she lived a modest life; she had more than enough savings than she would ever need in this lifetime. So even if the Syndicate fell, she would be fine. So why not let the boys have their fun.

Besides, the only thing she was able to do was protect the Syndicate’s data. And she did for the most part, she certainly didn’t make it easy for Tae. But it was hard to chase around his rootkit and damned annoying on top of it. So if she put it off for another day so be it. She was a busy woman now.

“Ma’am, your 4 o’clock is here.”

Another day another meeting with a boring exec. She sighed and turned to her secretary. “Thanks, let them in.”

* * *

“Ugh, I hate this, Ramos.”

Ramos scoffed. “Don’t be such a baby, Todd.”

“I just wish the boss didn’t always ask me to tell him,” Todd grumbled.

“You know, he’s technically your boss too.”

“I don’t know why Crypto hangs around him.”

Ramos laughed. “They’re married.”

Todd just stared. “You’re joking.”

“Does it look like I’m joking?”

“So Crypto is actually an idiot.”

“Don’t let Revenant hear you say that,” Ramos chuckled. “He’ll tear your spine out.”

Todd shuddered. “Don’t even joke like that.”

“I’m not.”

“This is the worst,” Todd grumbled.

“You know the boss always sends you because you’re so scared of him, right?”

“What?! Why would she do that?!”

“He likes the smell of fear,” Ramos said mockingly.

Todd whined.

They arrived in front of a well-hidden door, seemingly inconspicuous. Ramos knocked because they would be here all day if they had to wait for Todd to build up the courage.

“Come in,” a familiar voice said, Crypto. When they entered, many large green screens lit the room. A lone figure sat in the middle, the sound of quick typing filling the silence. Crypto threw a glance over his shoulder at the two. “Hello Ramos, Todd.” Crypto was nice, and the greeting was more than any other hacker that they worked with gave, seemingly thinking their time too valuable to even bother. “What can I help you with?”

“The boss is calling for Revenant.”

A hand curled around Todd’s chin. “And she sent you,” a haunting voice said. Todd stiffened at Revenant’s voice and whimpered at the sound of him sniffing the air. “She’s trying to get on my good side.” When Todd looked up, those eerie glowing orange eyes stared back. “Which means she wants to send me on an… extended mission.”

“Six days,” Crypto said.

“Todd isn’t enough for a week,” Revenant’s grip on Todd’s face tightened.

“Ppalgan, don’t be difficult.” Crypto turned in his seat and waved Revenant over. The simulacrum dropped from the ceiling and strode over to him. Only a hand full of people knew what Revenant looked like; besides Crypto he mostly kept to himself and generally stuck to the shadows. Ramos and Todd were curious. But like always, with just the light from the screens it was hard to make out much more than silhouette. He wore a cropped jacket with fur lining the collar. There were red lights accenting his legs. The bot was made up of more hard edges than not.

“Six days is a long time,” Revenant said.

“I’ll text you.”

He scoffed. “Like that’s enough.”

“Go take care of business. I’ll be here awaiting your return.”

“And if-”

“You worry too much, Ja-gi.” He patted Revenant thigh. “Now go see Ana before she blows up my notifications asking where you are.”

Revenant huffed. “The things I do for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it for this series! 
> 
> For those interested, tune in next weekend to the Revenant/Crypto tag for my next fic.


End file.
